Looking Up Into the Sky
by Lil Miss Morningstar
Summary: After six months in a coma, no memory of my past, locked away in a dungeon, and with some potential criminal charges on my head, life looks pretty bleak. And yet, the Hokage offers me an opportunity to build a new life. Even though I'm treated as an outcast in the village, I find the strength to go forward alongside my new friend and little brother, Naruto Uzumaki.
1. Prologue

Looking Up Into the Sky.

**A/N: Hi everyone. This will be my first shot at a Naruto Fic. It will be an OC insert, and will be quite long. There will be some general Konoha bashing in the beginning, but it will ease off as time progresses. For those wondering, it will **_**NOT**_** be an OCxNaruto. Fiore will only be an older sister of sorts to Naruto, nothing romantic. No pairings have been set in stone, but I got a few ideas in the works. Mostly just Naru/Hina. No Yaoi or Yuri planned at the moment, other than some momentary poking fun at some characters for getting caught in embarrassing situations. **

**The prologue is pretty extensive, but rest assured, regular chapters will be just as long. What can I say? I like long chapters.**

**Other than that, constructive criticism is always welcomed. So without further ado, time to get the show on the road!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Naruto anime/manga. **

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_Extended Summary: _

No memory of your past, no friends nor family looking for you, and waking up in a dungeon after six months in a coma, only to learn that you might have been a criminal, would be enough to make just about anyone wonder what to make of their lives. And yet, the Hokage offers you an opportunity for a fresh start, to build a new life, as long as you do not harm anyone nor endanger the village. So now I go by the name of Fiore, trying to make an honest living in the ninja village of Konoha, as I recover from my injuries and amnesia, while always having a ninja or two shadow my every move. I can't help but feel alone, trapped, untrusted and unwanted. And yet, as bad as things may look, I can't help but smile at the crazy antics of a young blond boy with a knack for mischief. Naruto Uzumaki, my first real friend, and also my new little brother.

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_Prologue: A casualty of circumstance. _

Silent shadows moved about the ancient forest landscape. Barely making any noise at all, they would be unseen my most creatures. Only to the eye of a highly trained shinobi, could the shadows be seen for what they truly were: ninjas. And ninjas of high caliber at that. They were members of Konoha's infamous ANBU, the best of the best. The group of a dozen or so black ops members where moving with haste towards the north-east. Usually ANBU operated in smaller cells, but by direct order of the Hokage had so many been grouped together for this one mission. Each of them was fully geared and battle ready, their faces covered with their signature painted masks and the rest of their body covered by armor and a long black cloak with the hood drawn. They were to investigate the scene of a large scale fire that was ravishing better part of a small community and much of the nearby farmland.

Normally, forest fires were not an uncommon scene in the Land of Fire. However the climate was usually humid enough and there was plenty of water around to be enough to control any sort of brushfires that might have sprung up during the dry seasons. Fires in villages or towns were occasional, but mostly due to accidents or carelessness. This fire however had a different origin, for there had been reports of attacks by rogue ninja. So far, two villages had been leveled down in the last week alone. That was when the Fire Diamyo, the Feudal Lord of the Land of Fire, sent message to the Hokage to find out what has happening and to put a stop to it. As for the Hokage, seeing as not a single report was able to determine what exactly they were up against, opted to err on the side of caution, going for overkill instead of risking loosing several chunin or maybe even jounin. Although somewhat skeptic at first, the ANBU accepted the mission. And so they left quietly under the cover of a cloudy night, making haste towards their destination.

Mid way to their destination, they were glad of their leader's decision. Because even at a distance of over 50 miles, a large scale inferno was very easy to see in the middle of the night. This was no small time nuke-nin they were dealing with.

As they got nearer to the chaos, they could finally see the extent of the damage. The town itself was beyond help. Even with large scale water techniques, whatever buildings were left standing would be far too insecure to be usable. The nearby countryside, once full of wheat just a few weeks short of harvesting, was fully up in flames. All they could do now was control the damage, rescue the people and find out what started the blaze.

With quick orders from the captain of the ANBU, the ninjas broke down into smaller groups, racing off in different directions in order to surround the fire and begin to control it from all sides. A few other ninja were already on the scene aiding as best they could, mostly chunins with a couple of genins, and a pair of jounins. From the looks of it, the jounins had taken control of the situation and began the rescue efforts. The ANBU captain quickly broke off from his group and stealthily landed next to one the Jounin that was carrying a couple of children away from the fire. With a quick series of hand signs, the captain invoked a large wave of water, sending it crashing into the nearby land and putting out some of the flames. The Jounin, relieved for the assistance, quickly passed the children to a pair of nearby adults, before turning to greet the captain.

"Captain. It's good to see you."

"Looks like we made it just in time. Give me the rundown of the situation." Responded the captain without turning, as he continued to send wave after wave of water to the edges of the fire.

"All right, here's what I've managed to piece together." The Jounin began explaining while using various earth based techniques to cover and suffocate the fire. "A fight broke out in one of the bars between members of rival bandit groups. It turned into one hell of a pub brawl, and somehow a nuke-nin or two got caught in the chaos. That's when the fireworks really started. Several loose fireballs and lightning strikes later, the whole town was a blaze."

"This is way too big for a bar fight gone wild." Retorted the ANBU never stopping for even a split second as he continued his efforts to douse the flames.

"Aye. I too think that something is missing, but first things first."

With a silent nod both continued working. Eventually the ANBU headed off into a different area that needed more help, leaving the Jounin to his own devices. Yet unseen to the rest of the shinobi present, he captain was also looking for clues as to what really happened. He would also stop and quickly question any shinobi that was not in immediate danger to hear what they knew. So far, the stories were more or less the same, all revolving around a bar fight that got out of hand. A couple of fellow ANBU members conferred that it was very likely that rogue ninjas were involved. So far no living witness had been found yet to dismiss or confirm the possibility, but all the same the captain quickly ordered half of the ANBU members to begin hunting down any and all possible rogue ninjas in the immediate area.

A few hours later, the fire was finally controlled and reduced to large plumes of smoke coming from the charred remains of various buildings. The majority of the village managed to escape with their lives, but still a dozen or so dead bodies had to be retrieved from the buildings. A few more people with still missing, but the shinobi where working overtime trying to find anyone else that could be still trapped in the rubble. In the meantime, the ANBU captain and one fellow ANBU member were scouting the central parts of the village, were the fire was said to have started.

The bar in question had been a shady old joint that served watered down beer and was usually frequented by the lowest of the low. It was one of 3 bars that were in the poorer section of the red light district of the town, right between a medium sized warehouse and a large smelting workshop. Now, the whole block was reduced to ashes. Only a couple of metallic beams and large blobs that made up the remains of various machines from the furnace and forges remained. If someone got caught in the area, then they were most likely dead, either by fire or asphyxiating from the smoke, or when the buildings collapsed over themselves. The smell was horrible, a putrid mix of cheap alcohol, urine, vomit, charred skin, and a handful of industrial-strength chemicals where enough to make all but the hardest of souls empty their stomachs on the spot. Even for the ANBU, with years of training for the most gruesome of scenarios, this is barely tolerable.

The two moved quickly, carefully moving away some objects while being wary of the still red coals. The bar itself was too destroyed to get any kind of decent evidence. With a silent nod to each other, each man jumped to a different nearby building, one towards what was once a brothel, the other towards what remained of a cattle slaughterhouse. This time, the search proved more informative. The outer walls of both buildings showed levels of damage and destruction only possible through jutsu. They only stopped in their search when another ANBU member came looking for them.

"Captain, we found a witness to the start of the fight. He's injured but can speak. He's been moved to the makeshift camp on the north side of the village to receive medical attention." Quickly reported the new arrival.

"Good. Go get Raven over in the slaughter house and help him out." Responded the captain.

"Yes sir!" the man saluted before going off in the proper direction.

Wasting no time, the ANBU captain made his way quickly towards the newly set up medical tents. Needing no introduction, one of the ninja acting as head medical officer quickly directing him towards the witness after spotting the captain. Said witness was a man probably in his 40's. Few details could truly be seen thanks to the large amount of bandages already on him. He was laying on the ground, over a not-quite-clean blanket, but it was better than nothing. What could be seen, revealed that the man was covered in severe burns. Most of his hair was long gone, and a few places in his skill all but melted off from extreme heat. He would most likely live out in poor health for the rest of his life. A young man no older than 20 was quickly trying apply medical balms to the burns before bandaging them as neatly as possible.

"Sir." The ANBU captain walked right up to the injured man and kneeled next to him before addressing him. "I've been told that you know what happened to the village that led to the fire. I will require that you tell me all that you know." He spoke in a near perfect monotone.

The man groaned in pain as he turned his head over to the ninja. "Y-yes. I was… in the bar… where it all… started." His voice was raspy and weak, coughing every so often. Clear signs that he had breathed in smoke, but the captain was no medical expert to determine the severity of the problems.

"Continue." Prodded the ninja.

The man went into a coughing fit before the nearby medical staff used a healing jutsu to ease his breathing pathways. Once he managed to get his breathing leveled out, he began his story.

"Just after 4 o'clock, a couple of travelers came to the bar. Looked like they were coming from the Land of Hot Water, to the North. They…. Met with a couple of shady fellows. Mercenaries or ninja, both groups. They talked for a while. Ordered some of the more expensive brews. Sounded like they were negotiating a trade of some kind. Kept mentioning something about moving a woman. I was… playing cards with a few of the men from the foundry that just got off of work. Lost most of my hands. After a while, one of the odd men went outside, and returned after maybe half an hour carrying a woman over his shoulder. She looked drugged or completely drunk. Thought it was one of the brothel girls from down the street from her skimpy clothing. The guy sat her down in one of the booths and went back to talking with the rest. They talked some more, managed to pick up something about disposing of the woman."

The news brought up a few possible scenarios for the ANBU. It was starting to sound like people smuggling or slave trade. While slavery itself was technically banned in all of the elemental nations, in practice it was another story. Former prisoners of war and other criminals often ended up in slave like conditions. But it was not unheard of having a slave or two do manual or heavy labor at some lords' houses. The cover story was usually having them work off large debts.

"Can you describe the men or the woman?" any kind of detail would at least point him in the right direction as to where to search for information next.

The man lying on the ground wheezed a bit before shaking his head sideways as much as he could without pain. "My eyes aren't what they used to be. That coupled with the poor lighting and the smoke didn't help much either." There went the clues he was hoping for. "However, they were seven men in total. Four from the traveling group and the other three must have been from the region. They were all hearing dark colored traveling clothes and cloaks. The woman looked like she had dark skin and dark messy hair."

'_Well, it's a start.'_ The ANBU told himself mentally. "What happened after that?"

"The woman started to come to. She groaned and mumbled stuff without making any sense. The men began to fight and shout among themselves. All the noise must have sobered up the gal 'cuz she was pissed and threw the first punch at the nearest man. Me and my buddies decided to leave before the fight really broke out. We paid our tab and left. We could hear the fight picking up behind us. One of my buddies was about to go find the local guards to break up the fight when we heard this huge explosion behind our backs. We turned around just in time to see the bar's windows explode and fire coming out the windows and open door. We heard more shouting when suddenly something or someone came out of the building. They moved so quickly all I saw was just glimpses. Then they must have jumped to the roof of the building up front and began to run away, like you ninjas do. Other figures came out the burning pub and chased after the first, throwing fire every which way and who knows what else. Soon the whole town was up in flames. I was trying to get my family and get out of town quickly after that. Almost had a building fall on me as I tried to make my out. That's… That's all I know." The man settled back down after relaying his story.

For the captain, this confirmed his suspicions about rogue-ninja. Now it was a matter of determining who exactly was behind all this. However with a dozen ANBU members at hand, anything short of kage level was not getting far. After all, he himself was a master tracker.

The ninja tanked the man for his assistance and quickly leaped away back towards the now broken down bar. During his chat with the older man, the smoke had lessened, and along with a stronger breeze blowing, it helped with the breathing. Visibility had improved somewhat, but it was not my much. It was after all the dead of the night, where only the moon above and the handful of buildings that still had lights turned on where the only sources of light.

Instead of walking into the run down bar, the ANBU changed directions at the last second, towards what remained of the town's tallest building. The old windmill, once proud and easy to see from a distance lost all of its blades to the fire. Now only the rough stone husk remained, and on top of that was where the ANBU landed. From there, he got a decent view of the whole town. From there, he could tell that the damage was rather extensive, but roughly half of the village could be salvaged and put back in working condition in a matter of days. The other half was sadly looking like it would need to be demolished. Aside from that, he could also spot clear indentations of where the fireballs landed. The crater's and scorched marks were of decent size, even from a distance. Whoever had caused that certainly knew how to pack very strong ninjutsu attacks, and judging from the level of destruction and the sheer number of craters, the person in question must've had some very good chakra reserves. All-in-all, he was potentially looking at a B to A rank missing nin. Or maybe several.

Well, it had been a while since he'd had a good challenge.

Smirking behind the mask, the man quickly made his way back to the ground, once again stopping in front of the burned down bar. He pulled a kunai with a flick of the wrist and nicked himself on the thumb, drawing blood. Quickly, he speeded through a group of hand signs while gathering his chakra, and then slamming his hand on the floor.

"Summoning Jutsu!"

A large puff of smoke surrounded the ninja. Once the smoke cleared, it revealed 3 dogs surrounding the summoner: a brown pug, a silver husky, and a large black pit bull. All 3 sported blue jackets and headbands engraved with the Konoha spiral leaf emblem. The pug, the smallest of the three, lifted a paw up to greet.

"Yo."

"Pakkun, Shiba, Bull." The ANBU greeted all three in turn. "I need your help tracking down some missing nin. There's at least one."

"All right. Tell us what's going on and we'll get started." Responded the small pug while all three ninken began to look around to get a better idea of the situation, occasionally scrunching up their noses due to the still strong smoke smells.

"A fight broke out in this building over here." The man began to explain pointing towards the remains of the once bar. "Between a group of seven men and possibly one woman. Any or all of them could be nuke-nin. They left the building up in flames before running all over the town, setting fire to just about everything. I need to find where they ran off to, and deal with them if necessary."

The three summons quickly began to sniff around the immediate area. "Not gonna be easy 'kashi. The smoke and fire are overpowering almost everything." Said the little pug after turning to look at the masked man.

"The fires were most likely caused by jutsus. Perhaps you can detect residual chakra from the attacks. My nose sadly can't."

"Over here!" cried out Shiba, the silver husky. "I picked up the sent!"

The rest of the group quickly trotted over to the husky, who was standing on his hind legs with his frontal paws on a stone wall. The wall was heavily scorched, cracked in several places and held one rather large crater, with an almost human like silhouette in the center of the crater. The markings where about 3 inches deep. Whoever got caught in that hit would probably have some moderate to heavy injuries. There was no body in front of the wall, so he would have to ask later if someone removed a corpse from that spot or find out to where the person managed to get away to. Bull, the large bull dog, padded up to the wall and pawed away some of the soot from a couple of spots. To their surprise, they found a handful of clear-cut tube like insertions into the wall that made it all the way to the other side. They were little more than an inch in diameter, with thin groves along the inside of the holes on opposite sides. Also, all of the holes reeked heavily of stale blood.

"I can detect two scents here. One from whoever got impaled, who is probably in bad condition if not dead, and the other is probably from the attacker." Said Pakkun after climbing on top of Bull to get a better whiff of the holes. "How do you wanna go about now?"

The ninja gave the holes a second glance. Whatever caused those holes was either a very precise and narrow stream of chakra, an oversized and chakra imbued arrow, or one hell of a lance trust. Bows, arrows and lances were not favored very much by the ninja population. There were more common among samurai. He'd been through all five Bingo Books from the larger Elemental Nations, and could only say that he could count in one hand the total number of rogue ninja that favored lances, while there were roughly two dozen bow users. However, he pushed aside his guesses in order to get back to the situation at hand.

"Shiba, Bull, you two follow the victim. If he or she is alive, pin him down and come get me. If he's dead, report him to the nearest ANBU to take back to the guys at T & I. I'll go with Pakkun to chase the other one." With a few nods and barks, the group separated into two teams. The two dogs following the ground, while the human and pug took to the rooftops.

Within two minutes of following Pakkun, the ANBU no longer had any doubts about dealing with a potentially high rank missing nin. The trail was all over the place. One second he was running across rooftops, and the next he had to duck into a nearly invisible alley, only to run a block and climb back on top of a building, and later jumping right though open windows, continuing along hallways, up a flight of stairs, and then jumping back into the street thought a knocked down wall. More than once he and Pakkun had to backtrack because the trail would overlap. The person must have been very agile to make such sharp turns in a split second. It was one hell of an obstacle course, that's was for sure.

Maybe he could tell the rest of the ANBU guys about building a similar training course back at home. That ought to through some of the rookies for a loop or two. And probably some of the more senior members too.

"I picked up a second scent. My guess it's trying to get away from the person making all the holes." Piped in the little pug while still on the move.

A few more sharp turns later, the duo landed inside a crumbling building, whose roof had caved in. It had obviously been ravished by the fire, but it had been put out before it was completely consumed. Only some of the beams remained from the second and upper floors, while the first floor was more or less intact.

"I smell blood. Careful Kakashi, this place looks like it could fall down any second." Pakkun warned his team mate, now completely identified as Konoha's infamous Copy-nin Kakashi Hatake.

The little summon slowed his pace and quietly guided the human towards the direction from which the blood smelled the strongest. Both treated lightly, away from the weaker floorboards and staying clear of the damaged columns that held up what remained of the building. Neither wanted to be buried alive that day after all. A few more turns, and the two came to a room that was completely soot covered, and the wall opposite to the entryway was turned into some weird version of a pincushion. The wall was completely covered in holes, and with a charred corpse resting against said wall.

It was a grisly sight. It had been a male, judging from the overall body shape. The clothes had been almost completely burned off, along with much of the skin. Disturbingly, it looked like the man had been impaled from the back, not just in one place with at least 8 times, all hits were deadly, but only 3 where in the instant-kill zones. One through the hearth and left lung, a second though the neck and the last one right in the head. The weapons of murder had been removed since the kill, so only the body remained slumped against the wall. Judging from the overall amount of damage in the room, Kakashi could not fully determine if the attacker had piss-poor accuracy and later moved in for the kill one he was pinned down, or the attacker could serve out a large number of attacks at the same time. The effect could easily be replicated with small throwing weapons like senbon and kunai, but this was something larger. And whoever was doing this, was not leaving behind any sort of ammunition. Definitely not the work of an amateur.

From a one of the inner pockets of his coat, Kakashi brought out a rolled up scroll. Then, very carefully he pulled the corpse away from the wall and laid it face up. A quick search later, he found a slashed headband with the symbol for Kumo. Apparently the metal had partially melted in the fire and it had attacked itself to the flesh of the person. There was no way to identify the body, but most ninjas would cut the head off and take it along with the forehead protector to collect their bounties. Another mystery. Pushing that to the back of his mind once more, he opened the scroll and with a few quick hand seals, the corpse was completely stored inside the paper scroll. He would definitely be taking it back to T & I. Maybe Ibiki and the crew could make something out of all this. On the back of the scroll he quickly wrote 'corpse', along with the location where he had found the body. _'One dead, seven to go.'_ He thought bitterly.

Now that the corpse was properly stowed away, Kakashi could get a better look at the wall where the man had been impaled. The holes here matched perfectly with the ones he had seen earlier. Same clean cut, shape, size and everything. Definitely made with the same type of weapon.

"This way Kakashi, the attacker kept moving." Said Pakkun after his summoner straightened up and placed the scroll back inside a pocket. Then without a word, he followed the pug back into the dark streets outside.

An hour later, the duo had found four more corpses in similar situations as the first one, all burnt and stabbed repeatedly. Kakashi stored each in a different scroll. Two of the bodies had Kumo Headbands, one had a Konoha headband, and the last one had no headband at all, but was most likely also a ninja since the body showed evidence of frequent chakra use, and had the remains of a ninja weapons pouch close to the legs. Either he didn't carry a headband or he lost it somewhere during the chase and before he got stabbed twelve times. He was about to head off once again when a fellow ANBU member came to his side, shortly followed by his two other ninken.

"Captain." The other ANBU greeted formally his superior before continuing. "My team found a woman that appears to be a missing nin. She's unconscious right now, apparently from chakra exhaustion. She had a few minor injuries also. We have tied her up for now, and wish to have you see her."

"Do you recognize her from any of the Bingo books?" inquired Kakashi.

"I'm afraid not sir. Raven and Owl are currently flipping through 2 books trying to see any matches." Replied the other man.

Kakashi sighed, but nodded. "Very well. What about you two?" he addressed the two summoned dogs.

"Didn't take us long to find the body. I went and got one of the ANBU guys to store it away for later." Chipped in Shiba, while Bull only looked up to Kakashi and replied with a deep 'woof' before letting his fellow pack member do the explaining.

"That makes six bodies. Seven if the woman is in league with them. So there's still one more missing. Pakkun, do you still have the trail?"

"Yeah, I still got it."

"Good, you three follow the trail. See if we can grab ourselves the full party." The dogs nodded and ran off, Pakkun at the lead. "Ok, Hawk, where to?"

In mere moments, the two shinobi made it to the outer edges of the town, were five of the ANBU had gathered. Three of them were furiously searching page by page through a couple of different bingo books, while the other two were on guard. They all however stopped what they were doing in order to greet their captain with a chorus of 'sir!'s.

As Kakashi knelt down to get a better look at the woman, he asked the others "Where did you find her and how did you find her?"

"Less than half a mile from the town's edges, close to where one of the floodgates the farmers on the north side of the town use for the farmland. The area showed signs of a fight. We found her already out cold, in a small dry ditch. Tiger's team is still over there looking for clues, sir."

The Copy ninja took in all the information as he looked over the woman. She was either in her late teens or early twenties. Even with the poor lighting, he could tell that she had tanned skin. Her hair reached just under her shoulder blades, and was probably either dark brown or black, it was hard to tell with all the caked in mud and grime. Her whole body was covered in small scratches and had a couple of visible kunai cuts. She wasn't particularly pretty in the face, with a bruised lip and slightly crooked nose. He could not see nor smell any makeup. As for clothing, all she had on was a knee length, plain brown, wide skirt and wrappings around her chest. Both pieces had seen better days but it gave some much needed modesty. Her exposed midriff showed signs of lack of nourishment, but she was far from all skin and bones. Quite the contrary, the woman had a figure many women would die for, wide hips, slender waist and a large bosom. Tsunade's legendary rack still reigned supreme in that department, but this woman was quite gifted too. A perverted part of his brain, corrupted by years of Icha Icha, giggled almost deviously while whispering that they looked natural, instead of genjutsu enhanced. Evidently that detail was not missed among the rest of the male members of the ANBU, if his nose had anything to say, or the slight irritation from the two female members.

Mentally, he scolded himself for derailing so badly. He had a job to do! Plus she could very well be a rogue ninja, or worse yet, the one that chased down and killed the other men he had found. So with a mental kick in the shins, he went back to searching (making sure his eyesight stayed clear of the chest area for once). The woman was also barefoot, her feet rough and hard. She probably had not used shoes of any kind in a long time or did not use any at all. Another oddity to add to the puzzle. Shinobi very rarely traveled and fought barefoot. Bare feet left tracks, and even if she somehow used chakra to hold herself while walking, it would still leave small indentations in the ground. Shinobi sandals were special in that regard, with some practice and a little chakra molding, the ninja could walk around without leaving any sort of tracks at all. So either she figured out some way to not leave any tracks at all, or she was a civilian.

Kakashi's mind went back to the description from the old man. He had said that a dark skinned woman in skimpy clothing that easily passed off as a prostitute had been dragged into the bar. She wasn't exactly dark skinned, but she had the curves and the attire for the job. So a poor woman, down on her luck, having to sell herself in order to get back, got dragged into something way too big? Possible, yes, but it did not explain the chakra exhaustion. Civilians could indeed enter a state very similar to chakra exhaustion if fatigue was severe enough. No food for long periods and having to run for your life might have been enough to cause the woman to crash out cold. He tried to sense chakra coming from the woman, but he could sense none. NONE.

All living things had chakra, be it people, animals, plants, everything had chakra. Heck even the ground and water had chakra. Minute yes, but there still was chakra in there. Shinobi had larger reserves of chakra, hence the importance of learning to mask or suppress your own chakra early on in the shinobi career. Civilians had about the same reserves as animals of similar sizes, but the still _had_ chakra. This woman had nothing coming off from her. Cero chakra. The only situation where chakra was not emitted by the body was when someone was dead, or on the brink of death. His mind quickly went into overdrive. He quickly checked for the woman's life signs. He pulse on her hand was weak but more or less constant, so he tried on the neck. He could feel her heartbeat there too. She was still breathing, considering the rise and fall of her chest. Well, she was alive, but he wasn't sure how or why, or for how long. The only other things that he detected where that her hands and feet had been bound in charka restraining rope, and several chakra sucking seals had been placed along the major tenketsu points, but they always left enough to keep the prisoner alive…

Something was wrong, very wrong with the woman.

"Did any of you detect chakra on the woman before restraining her?" he asked without turning around while doing some quick first aid techniques in hopes to bring out some chakra from the woman. Civilian or nuke nin, if they wanted answers out of her, she needed to be alive.

"When we found her, she had a faint signal." Said Owl, who was now reading page after page from his second bingo book. "Too much to be a civilian, but it quickly began to die down. We thought she was dying but we used just about every healing technique we knew and nothing. Somehow she's alive and more or less stable, but that's about it. She hasn't woken up or moved, but she's not getting any worse either."

"We even placed lesser seal suppressors that we usually would on suspicious detainees and other ninjas." Commented Raven without lifting her head out of the bingo book in her hands.

Kakashi swore under his breath as he began searching for signs of any kind of internal damage. He was beginning to regret having ditched those advanced first aid classes that had been offered at the hospital open to all Konoha ninja. But then again those had been right after the latest Icha Icha installment had come out! He could not abandon the freshly printed book while listening to some guy lull the class to sleep on some kind of monotone dialog. One only stopped in his frenzied search when the bingo book readers stopped in their page flipping.

"Could this be..?" softly asked Owl as he had his book held open in a certain page, while doing double takes between looking at the woman and the page at hand.

The nearest ANBU, Rabbit, bent over and took a peak at the page. "Huh… she looks a bit like her…. Not a whole lot though."

In a blink of an eye, Kakashi had nabbed said book right out of the hands of his fellow shinobi. He flipped a few pages until he found the one that the two other ANBU had been talking about, after taking a look at the cover of the bingo book he had swiped.

The earmarked page had a black and white sketch instead of a photo for id. Sketches were usually used when a rogue ninja hailed from no shinobi village in particular, or if they someone managed to survive into the big league while being almost exclusively self-taught. The drawing was that of a young woman with a feral like appearance. Sharp eyes, messy hair pulled back and slender face. Her irises were slit, much like a cats, giving her and even fiercer look. On top of her head a pair of straight goat like horns emerged from the thick mane she had for hair. Very odd indeed. Features like that of the woman in the entry were almost exclusively to some sort of bloodline, and bloodlines were highly sought out in every elemental nation –well save for Kiri that only wanted to kill them all off. If not for the horns, he could have passed her off as being from the Izunuka clan, with her feral look and everything, but then again she also lacked the tattoos and markings from said clan. He bent down, using one hand to gently lift the unconscious woman's face a little further into the light. The facial structure between the two was rather similar. It only added to the knot already forming inside of Kakashi's gut. Letting the woman back down, he turned to read the rest of the entry page. 'Icefire Ouka of the Northern Swamps' was the tittle.

'_Age: aprox 20-30. Height: aprox 1.70 m. Weight: 50-65 Kg. Potential rank: A or B+ class rogue ninja. Distinguishing characteristics: icy blue-gray cat like eyes, a pair of horns extruding from the top of the head that grow towards the back, slightly curved, dark blue to dark green skin tone, some accounts mentioned that it looks more like reptilian scales. Two reports mention a tail coming from her lower backside and a pair of long bones extruding from her back creating leathery wings. Most reports don't mention extra appendages. At a distance she might appear to be a dark skinned, well-endowed woman, wondering naked thought the swamps without worry._

'_The woman is believed to be named Ouka, and comes from somewhere between the northern borders of the Land of Fire and the Northern sea. She displays no headband, so her allegiance is unknown. She appears to be completely senile, wondering about in random directions and shouting something incomprehensible. She has only been spotted (and reported) in thick and dark swamp-like regions, mainly around Waterfall, Rice and Hotsprings countries. Once engaged in combat, she becomes narrow minded and will stop at nothing the kills the challenger unless he or she manages to flee far enough. She fights as if completely possessed._

'_The two known encounters that have lived to tell the tale say that she was exceptional control over water-based ninjutsu along with some highly powered fire ninjutsu. It was said that she could create at will several ice lances out of thin air, which serve as her main weapon for close range fighting, but she can also throw them at a fair distance. She can also destroy or melt the lances at will. It is unknown if she possesses a Bloodlimit or not, however it is believed that she does not possess the once fabled Hyoton line from Kiri, since the only ice based attacks that can be confirmed are the invoking of the ice spears. Mostly she uses fire and water jutsus to disorient and to corner her enemies until she can kill them. She's said to have a maniacal grin and laugh when fighting. Also, she's believed to have exceptional stealth, easily able to move about on ground and in water without making a sound or leave traces. She's highly agile and fast, she can navigate easily in near pitch darkness and dodge both incoming attacks and geographical obstacles. The bodies of what are presumed to be her victims often sport severe burns, signs of drowning, and multiple inch wide holes made from what we believe to be her ice lance. Her combination of Fire, water and ice lances have earned her the nicknames 'Icefire', 'Frostfire', 'Firewater', and to a lesser extent 'Swamp Witch'._

'_As of the start in which this book was printed and distributed, a total of 48 confirmed deaths have been labeled to be her doing, along with another possible 31. Out of the confirmed deaths, 9 were gennin of various age, 32 chuunin, and 7 jounin. The other 31 are not added to her tally since these showed evidence of attacks by other creatures or standard issue ninja weaponry, mostly likely they managed to escape from Ouka but where finished off by other passing ninja or wandering creatures. Other than killing her victims, she appears to leave the bodies alone. Money and supplies have been found untouched on most corpses._

'_While she has not exactly committed any kind of high crime, nor has she endangered any known settlement, she has gained entry into the book because she can pose as a great danger to careless travelers and unsuspecting shinobi._

'_She should not be aggravated nor engaged inside large bodies of water or in humid regions. Do not engage if your rank is lower than Jounin, and even then do so only under great caution and in numbers. Standing order is "Engage under caution and only when the situation is favorable."_

'_She has no established bounty on her head, but local lords might be willing to offer a reward for her confirmed death.'_

Kakashi closed the book and sighed deeply. The description was eerily similar to the overall damage he had seen in the town. Far too close for comfort. If he wasn't wearing his full ANBU gear, he would have passed a hand through his hair more than once. "We will be taking her back to Konoha, and hand her off to T & I." He spoke to the rest as he got up. "If she is the woman from the entry then she will be executed. If not then she might be let go under surveillance."

The rest of the ANBU nodded and began to make preparations for transport. In the meantime, Kakashi went and searched for the other ANBU members to see if they had caught the last straggler. It didn't take him long to find Tiger and his team, who were all observing with great care what looked to be a small battle zone. The four ANBU there quickly stood to attention and greeted. The place looked like a one on one scuffle took place. One among high end ninja with no bars held.

Tiger, the leader of the immediate squad, began to point out their findings. Scratches, cuts, skid marks, disturbed earth, few deep grooves in a few rocks, scorched marks and even the same kind of lance holes galore. A pair of kunai were also retrieved, along with a handful of senbon and shuriken. Unlike in the town, there were also a few oddly damp spots of earth and muddy puddles left, evidence of water justu. Soon Tiger lead Kakashi over to the ravine were the woman was eventually found. A few footsteps were still imprinted, and some skid marks where she might have tried to pull herself out of the ravine but failed and succumbed to fatigue. The whole situation made Kakashi wish he had brought Shikaku, or a battle ready Nara, to put all the clues together and make heads or tails of the whole situation.

Sometime later, the rest of the ANBU team returned to report coming empty handed, even the ninken lost the trail on the other side of the town, opposite to where the mystery woman was found. However they also came to report that the last of the fires had finally been put down, both inside and outside of the village. Given that the situation was finally dealt with, it was time to go back and report to the Hokage. It was decided that half of the ANBU would remain vigilant around the village in case something new came up, while the rest would run back to Konoha with their findings. The reconstruction would be left with the locals and the nearest overruling land lord.

After making sure that the potentially insane woman was properly tied up, still alive and that the chakra suppressors where still in place the six ANBU plus captain raced back to the capital. They made it to the village gates just as the first few rays of sunlight began to peak over the eastern horizon. A quick check in at the gates, and then all six where speeding through the city. One member of the group soon broke formation and ran towards the Hokage tower, to quickly inform the Kage about what happened. The rest of the group headed to the Torture and Interrogation HQ. If there was anyone that could confirm or dismiss the possibility that the unconscious woman that they had brought back with them was indeed the senile rogue ninja from the Taki book, it was Ibiki and his crew.

Within minutes the five ANBU were guided towards the deeper dungeons in the T&I building. The deeper cells were reserved for dangerous personalities and high-end captured ninja. No one wanted to risk placing a would be loose cannon in one of the upper levels that were not quite as heavily guarded. Soon enough, Ibiki showed up along with three aides, just as the ANBU had finished strapping the woman in question to the center 'work' table, and began to prepare the cell that was chosen while getting the details of the situation out of the ANBU.

"So she's the one responsible for the uproar in the northern villages?" asked Ibiki almost incredibly. "I was expecting some A or B class rogue nin group, not some no name woman."

Kakashi and several of the others nodded their heads in agreement. "True, we were also expecting something along those lines. However," Kakashi stopped in his tale long enough to pull out several scrolls, the ones that contained the six corpses that were retrieved from the village. "These six were retrieved from the village. All of them were killed in the exact same manner. Burnt to a near-crisp and multiple stabs."

Wordlessly, Ibiki took one scroll, the top one from the group Kakashi had offered and walked over to one of the side tables big enough hold a body. After biting down on his thumb and using his blood to undo the special seal lock on the scroll (the ANBU placed special seals on such scrolls to make sure someone didn't open them up by accident), the remains of a body poofed into existence. The head interrogator let out a low whistle after quickly viewing the damage.

"Well someone knew the term overkill. Whoever got him, wanted to be sure that this guy stayed dead. Did you manage to retrieve the murder weapon?" The scarred man turned to the rest of the occupants in the room for an answer.

"Unfortunately, no." replied Kakashi. "The bodies were found in different places all over the village. If anything, it looked like each one had been hunted down individually before getting cornered and finished off. I followed the trail, and it was not a route that a civilian could do. I had to run up walls, jump over entire buildings, take sharp turns and even run along ceilings. Definitely a shinobi did it."

"I'll have to send someone to take pictures of the damage before someone starts tempering with the evidence or the demolition crews start tearing the place apart." The man grumbled to himself, but part of him was impressed. If not for the overall destruction of half a village, the person involved must have some very solid stealth, tracking and assassination skills. "But enlighten me, what made you believe that this woman did all the damage?"

It was Jaguar, one of the ANBU, who provided the answer by pulling out the Taki bingo book and opened it up in the correct page before handing it over to the torture expert. "The evidence follows the overall description from this entry's description. They even look somewhat alike. Plus, one of the locals that saw the original fight break out gave a description that does match the woman's. I did a quick roundup of the rest of the survivors from the fire and she was the only one that came close to matching the witnesses description, so at the very least, she was there when it all started."

"Icefire Ouka huh." The other man brought a hand to his chin as he read the rest page's text. "Well her victim's state right about matches what happened to that guy over there. You guys might be on to something. However their physical descriptions don't quite match. We are going to need to do a rather thorough search on this. All right, leave her to me and I'll see what I can find. I'll hand over the corpses over to the morgue division to cut the guys open." Said Ibiki after snapping the book closed and handing it back to the ANBU. "You are all free to go. I'll report to the Hokage what I find."

The ANBU members nodded and made their way out. Ibiki then turned to his assistants.

"Ok, Mo, get me a camera, several pairs of surgical gloves and the clipboard I left in the upper floor. Gary, go fetch my fun kit from the storage room. Calek, get me a double expresso, dark, with cream, sugar and hold the cinnamon. Now hop to it!"

* * *

Ten hours later, Ibiki was standing in front of the Hokage to hand out his findings. The room had been sealed off and the silence wards had been activated. Both men skipped the pleasantries as Ibiki handed over a pair of folders. Straight to business.

"The woman is an enigma. She has no chakra at all, and despite all of my attempts we could not bring her back to consciousness. I would have passed her off as dead but her heart still beats and her lungs still draw air. Physical injuries are mostly small and non-threatening. The only things that stood out were a bruise of some sort on the back, and a seal that appeared over her stomach when he tried using various jutsus to pump chakra into her. The seal looks like some sort of suppressant. It's rather intricate and I decided to not risk removing it for the time being." Explained the interrogator.

Hiruzen listened attentively to Ibiki's findings as he looked at the pictures and documents that had been handed over. One folder had pictures from the damage caused at the small town, as well as a written report of the damage. It was staggering, but it was not a complete loss for the village, they would recover within a year or two at most. The other folder held information from what the T&I department had uncovered, from both the corpses and from the enigmatic woman. It pained him to see the Konoha insignia on one of the bodies, but it pained him more to know that said man had abandoned and betrayed his team to a crime lord in exchange for money. The teammates were rescued but the traitor had escaped. Well until now that is. At least he had been brought to justice, albeit in a somewhat gruesome way. He'd have to get someone to update the records and label the man as deceased later.

The mystery woman was a whole different matter. He had already read the bingo book entry and had to agree that the overall damage from the attack and the bodies recovered fit the description for this Ouka woman. More troubling was that it also matched the evidence obtained from the other recent villages that had been attacked. The only differences were that in this last attack, the damage was more wide spread while at the same time directed. The other villages did not feature crumbling walls filled with spear holes. If anything, the other attacks were more about causing wide spread chaos and fear. This last case was clearly the result of someone having a clear objective: hunting down those six men and killing them for some reason.

At any rate, it was going to be difficult proving if the unnamed woman was the one responsible behind the attacks. He thanked small miracles that neither Danzo nor his old team mates and current advisors had been informed of this yet. Knowing the three old farts, they would probably cry out for the woman's quick death even if it could not be confirmed if she was the one behind the attacks or not. He could already hear the uproars about keeping a potentially mad nuke nin inside the city proper, even if she was unconscious and in the heaviest of fortified cells inside the T&I building.

But the old man pushed aside those thoughts and focused on the present, continuing to go through each of the pictures provided. The woman's injuries were not much. The bruise in the back looked like she had taken a good punch in the back, the area taking purple and green colors from the hit. The next picture was a close up of the seal Ibiki mentioned. Like the man said, it did look like a suppressant seal. Or more specifically, a bastardized version of the Five Pronged Seal. There were only a hand full of people capable of pulling off the complete version of said seal, two of his one time students, Jiraiya and Orochimaru were among them. The dearly wished that this was not the work of either. This mock off might have been the work of amateur. Several of the characters were completely wrong and several key parts were missing. Perhaps this was what had kept the woman in her near death like state. With a little bit of time and some careful tweaking he should be able to fix it and later remove it without causing danger.

"Very well. I'll come over and see to removing this seal. But the chakra absorbing seals should remain placed on her just in case." Commented the old professor as he placed the folders down and took another long drag from his pipe. "For now, keep this folder about the woman hidden and away from view. I don't want the council on my back for now."

"I'll start the necessary preparations." Responded Ibiki.

"Good. Dismissed."

The scarred man bowed down before picking up one of the folders and taking his leave.

As promised, the Hokage had made is way to the prisoner cells later that day. Ibiki soon meet up with the old man and guided him towards the cell containing the mystery woman. Unlike in some of the pictures, someone had taken to covering the woman's chest with some wrappings while her hips had a towel around them. Ibiki then walked up towards the woman and casted a small healing jutsu on the woman, making the seal on her stomach flare to life. True to his title as The Professor, it did not take the Hiruzen long to correct the faulty seal and later removing it completely.

To both of their surprises, there were no changes in the woman. For a second, Sarutobi was starting to believe that perhaps he had removed the seal incorrectly, but there was no trace left of the seal. In their confusion both began to search for any sort of other seals that could have sprung to life, but there was none. Other than that, the woman still showed no signs of waking up.

"Perhaps the seal was so faulty that it simply did nothing?" Offered Ibiki.

"Hmmm… I'll have to make some tests on that later. At any rate, you won't have a seal interfering with you anymore. Get what information you can out of her. Maybe even get Inoichi to search her mind her answers. I want daily updates for at least two weeks." Responded the aged professor.

"Yes sir. Also, in case she wakes up, what would you have us do? The usual?"

"For now yes." Replied the older man after some thinking over. "Consider her as a criminal on hold for all practical purposes, but don't break out your bag of tricks unless she gets aggressive. There is a possibility that she might be innocent after all. And yes, do find a way to discreetly inform me should she wake up. Try to keep her calm and maybe get her to trust you and your workers until I get over here."

"Very well sir. I'll be using the kid gloves then." Said Ibiki with a smirk on his face.

The Kage chucked at the man's response. Despite his chosen profession, Ibiki did have a sense of humor. He could be as twisted as his fellow co-worker Anko at times, but he also knew how to tone it down when the situation required it. Hiruzen trusted Ibiki in that matter, and knew that the man would take a more civilized approach unless the prisoner woman became too unruly and uncooperative. Innocent or not, a calm prisoner usually was much easier to work with.

With the situation in good hands, the Hokage bid his leave, taking his time to get back to the tower. He wasn't exactly eager to go back to do paperwork. Maybe he should go and visit a certain wayward, troublemaking boy he saw as a grandson.

* * *

Six months had passed since that day. Now, once again Ibiki was meeting the Sarutobi elder in the Hokage office. Today, they were also accompanied by the Yamanaka clan head, Inoichi.

"I'm at a complete loss, sir. I've thrown everything just short of the kitchen sink, and still we have nothing on the woman." Ibiki told the other two occupants in the room with an exasperated tone. Rarely did Ibiki not get what he wanted out of prisoners, but the mystery woman had indeed put the man at his wits end. A couple of nearly destroyed training grounds were a testament to the man's ire. But true to his word, he did not resort to use his torturing skills. They would have resulted in being more counterproductive than anything else anyway.

Sarutobi sighed at the news. He too was beginning to believe it was a lost case. "What about you Inoichi? What have you seen in her mind?" he asked the blond man in front of him.

"In short, her mind is completely blank. If anything, I'd say she had a complete mind wipe. No memories at all. There still is brain activity in there, but it's only on par to dreamless sleep." The man sighed before running a hand through his long bangs. He too had tried everything in his repertoire, at first intrigued by the challenge put as the months ticked by, he too soon became irritated by the overall lack of progress and results. Even his appearance had become somewhat haggard, his hair had been pulled up in a messy tail, his face covered in a short stubble from not shaving during the last week, and even his eyes showed a few rings under them from working nights. "Worst part is, even _I_ can't pull of something like that. I can erase memories from given periods of time, but never have I been able to completely destroy a mind. There was literally _nothing_ left. Not even memory fragments or particles. I've seen the inside of victims with severe amnesia, they still have their memories, but they are shattered, scattered and rearranged in such a way that the mind can't put them back together without help. At this point, I'd say she might not even know how to read, write, talk or even walk."

"This is indeed most troubling." Commented the kage. The other two men nodded in agreement. "Physically wise, am I to assume that she has shown no changes either?"

"She's lost weight. Keeping her alive through IV needles isn't the best way to keep a body going, but since she can't eat nor drink on her own, it's the only thing we can do." Said Ibiki. "But other than that, she's still basically in coma, with no signs of waking up."

The men stood in silence for a bit, going over the information. Inoichi cleared his throat before speaking.

"Permission to speak freely sir?"

"Granted." Replied the kage.

"I suggest we… put her down."

The other two men looked at the blond for a second, trying to discern what was it that he was thinking.

"Explain your reasoning, Inoichi." Said the kage in a somber tone.

The Yamanaka sighed before collecting his thoughts to explain.

"She's been like that for over six months now. During that time, she has not been a single improvement towards waking up. If she does somehow, by tome miracle, come back to the land of the living, she will most likely be like a newborn, with no memories nor knowledge whatsoever. During these same six months, there have been no inquiries about a missing person with her description. Even our informants in other nations haven't come across any bills or petitions for a missing woman like her. Most likely… she has no family, another orphan from the Third Shinobi War perhaps. Or maybe she was disowned, unwanted, or abandoned for some reason. Chances are, no one will be looking for her, and it's even less likely that someone will take her in out of complete kindness. With heavy rehabilitation she might recover, some day in the far off future, but by then she could still be mentally 10 years old in the body of a 40 year old woman. Also… we are spending far too much on her and have gotten nothing to show for it." The blond sighed once again while putting his next words in order. "We could… put her to sleep via lethal injection. It would be quick and painless. Her body will simply shut down."

It was a somber reality, but the truth was that this little investigation was going nowhere. Inwardly, all three men had already considered the possibility of putting the woman down one way or another. A merciful death or face a lifetime as a cripple or invalid.

"And your thoughts on this Ibiki?" asked Hiruzen.

"Given our situation, I'm inclined to agree with Inoichi. It would either be that, place her in the retirement home, or make her a permanent resident at the hospital. If she does not wake up, then the hospital or a separate cell in the dungeons will be the only options." Explained Ibiki. "If she did wake up, then her future would depend on if she makes a full recovery or not. Also… if not for the fact that work had been rather slow of late, then we would not have had the time or the resources to spare to investigate the woman. My current list of prisoners is rather small, mostly just crooks and small time miscreants. Heck, even the last group of traitors that were dragged in by the ANBU cracked within an hour. Quite frankly, I'm close to giving some people time off before the holiday season starts."

The kage closed his eyes to contemplate. Inwardly, he hated ordering the death of innocents, but the woman in question was really between a rock and a hard place. There really was no winning outcome from the situation. He had already seen the tally for her upkeep, and it was starting to add up. Up until now, the finances allocated to T&I had covered the cost, but it should not have fallen unto them to keep a dead person alive. Part of him was inclined to believe that the woman had simply been at the wrong place at the wrong time, and paid a heavy price for it. But, a small voice in the back of his mind reminded him that ever since that the woman was brought in, there had been no more attacks on outlying villages. His spies and other intelligence agents had also reported that there had not been any new attacks by the fabled Swamp Witch. Even Jiraiya had taken the time to snoop around the areas for info. His old student was able to confirm the existence of the mad woman, and even sent copies of the pictures taken of the victims. There were exactly the same as the six bodies Kakashi had brought back six months ago, save for less fire and being more waterlogged. Sadly, Jiraiya had not been able to get better descriptions of the mad woman without raising suspicion. For all points and purposes, the Swamp Witch had been taken completely off the map. He didn't like it, but he had a village and a nation to protect and defend. If the woman was to die, innocent or not, then he would be merciful about it.

"Patch her up as best as you can and remove the chakra draining seals one by one. Then take her off life support. If she does not come around within a week, then put her down with a painless poison. The body is to be burnt and the ashes spread out in the forest away from the city." Ordered the Hokage as he took out a slip of paper from a drawer along with a brush and ink. "I'll have four ANBU watch over the cell for the week. Leopard, get in here."

An ANBU member with said animal mask quickly came out of the shadows without a sound, and then proceeded to salute his superior. "Sir."

"I want you and three others to help Ibiki in his current endeavor. You are free to pick your comrades for this, but I must insist that you select people that are skilled in restraining targets, and possibly someone that can rapidly place restraining seals too. If the woman inside the cell wakes up, you are to inform Ibiki and myself as soon as you determine if she poses as a treat or not. If she becomes aggressive and makes any attempt to attack, you have permission to kill. If she does not make any sudden moves then send a messenger and wait for further orders. For now go meet Ibiki in an hour at his office."

"Yes sir." the ANBU nodded and then disappeared to go fetch his team.

"Good, you two are now free to go." The kage turned to the two men in front of him. They said their farewells and went back to their business.

Once alone, Hiruzen just hoped that he had not made a bad call on this matter. In his old age, he knew that he was becoming much too soft hearted and too lenient. That, and the council basically trying to overrule everything that he did was leaving him near powerless as far as diplomacy went. He had made several bad calls in the past, and one of them weighed very heavily on his age worn shoulders.

Looking outside, he could see the product of one of those questionable decisions. Once again the Hokage monument was getting a makeover at the hands of a spunky, troublemaking, orange clad, spiky haired and blond boy. Despite all the trouble Naruto caused for him, he couldn't help but chuckle at the boy's mischievous activities. This time the boy was adding dark paint to Tobiramas's face, making the first Hokage look like he had thick mascara and eyeliner on, along with some red paint on the lips that could pass off as lipstick. Hashirama's face had already been doodled upon with various multicolored stars, hearts, spirals and… A pony? He shuddered as to where the boy could have come up with the idea for a bright pink pony. Naruto had yet to reach the other two faces. Despite all the boy's faults, he sure knew how to sneak around the village's ninja.

In truth, Naruto always made him smile. His pranks were some of the only things that made him smile now days. He also knew that by now, an angry chuunin would be marching right thorough his door any second now…

"Hokage-sama!"

Right on time.

* * *

Elsewhere, in the T&I HQ, Ibiki and the four ANBU were standing around the unconscious woman and Ibiki began removing the currently places seals and the straps holding her down. He liked the team Leopard had picked. A civilian born shinobi, now ANBU, that had made a name for himself as a Taijutsu master that was particularly good at disabling others via pressure points, a Nara to shadowbind, and an all too familiar mop of silver hair that was Kakashi. Leopard himself was an expert with genjustsu, so all bases were covered. Kakashi had been an interesting choice, but then again he was the only surviving student from Minato Namikaze, the village's sealing genius. The Hatake might not have his sensei's natural knack for the sealing arts, but there were few people that could match his speed at making hand seals, nor complete with his vast array of known jutsu. The agreed set up was that Leopard would throw a genjustu over the woman to disorient her, the Nara would immobilize the woman with a shadow-binding technique, the Taijutsu master would move in and basically royally screw up her nervous system and prevent any movement, and lastly Kakashi would step in and place binding seals to shut her down, or, in the worst case scenario, execute her. As for Ibiki, he would have his hands full removing the current binds and the various cables attached to the woman, but if he managed to get his hands free, he would also assist in restraining her.

Once all five shiboni got into their positions, with a silent nod shared through all of them, Ibiki began to remove the medical equipment from the woman. With each cable removed, with each needle pulled out, the elite ninja were looking for any sign of movement, the slightest twitch or fluttering of the eyes, but nothing happened. No movement at all. All too soon, Ibiki finished with the medical equipment and proceeded with the binds, and that too was soon removed without incident.

Before long, the last of the restraining binds and seals was completely removed. All of the room's occupants, sans the one that was out cold, had been growing more and more tense with each passing minute. Yet, for better or for worse, the woman had not even flinched. They waited a full 5 minutes, frozen in place, waiting to see any response from the woman, but nothing. With a grunt, Ibiki was the first to break the silence.

"I don't like to bite the kunai this soon, but looks like she's not waking up." The said as he took a step back while crossing his arms.

It was a bit of a mixed blessing. On one hand, there went the risk factor for a full out brawl, but on the other hand, there went their chances at getting any kind of good info out of the woman._ 'She might be simply too far gone…' _The interrogator thought to himself.

Either way, there were other things to do. So after clearing his throat, he addressed the ANBU. "Plan B then. Guard duty until she wakes up, or the week is up."

The other ninja nodded in response and got out of their battle stances, but they remained alert and at the ready. Before long, the room was cleared of all the medical equipment and any other furnishings, leaving the room completely bare, except for the small cot in the middle and its sole occupant. The men then filed out and closed the door behind them without making a single sound, activating the final containment seals that placed the room under complete lockdown. No one got in or out unless Ibiki said so. Now, it was just a waiting game.

* * *

Six days had passed since the mysterious prisoner had been taken off life support in the deeper parts of the T&I building.

"Ibiki, sir. The woman appears to be coming too." said one of the masked ANBU that suddenly popped into the T&I leader via shunshin.

"Well I'll be. I had pretty much given up hope on her." Responded Ibiki while placing down the papers he had been reading through. "What's the status? And who is watching over her?"

"She's not fully conscious yet, just moving slightly and moaning for the most part. So far she did not show any signs of aggression, just some pain and discomfort. ANBU Raven is currently watching over here, and I also took the liberty of contacting the others to arrive as soon as possible. I've also sent ANBU Mouse to inform the Hokage."

Ibiki frowned a bit, but then closed his eyes and nodded. The ANBU had made a good call on rapidly informing him and his fellow team members. The Hokage would probably take a bit to arrive, having to move around the dammed council and thrice dammed advisers to not raise suspicion. Thankfully the woman's presence was still only known to a handful of people, and no one from the council –except for Inoichi- knew of her existence. Those old farts, Homura, Koharu and Danzo would have tried many times over to kill her off many times over as soon as they so much as caught a whiff of this little side project, claiming some narrow minded nonsense about 'better safe than sorry' or 'trimming the potential problem at the bud before it even got a chance to bloom'. Ibiki personally had no love for that trio, and frankly did not know how or why the Hokage put up with them. Those three should have retired about five centuries ago in his humble opinion. None the less, those old coots where off his back, but he knew that the older Kage would have a harder time getting them off of his. However, the four ANBU and he should be more than more than enough (more like overkill) to handle the situation until Sarutobi could sneak out of the tower. _'Maybe he should get that boy, Naruto, to give him council-skipping classes. He's awfully good at sneaking out of his own classes'. _

As for the woman's response, it was somewhat mellow but actually expected. After all, given what the woman and been put through, no big wonder why she wasn't quite there yet. He would have to send a messenger to get Inoichi to do a mental review of the woman. That and maybe a medic to do a full checkup, possibly getting some serums into her system. Over six months without eating a single thing really does a number on the body. But first things first, there was still the issue about not being sure if the woman was friend or foe. There was also the danger that the woman could try to attack as soon as she got enough of her bearings back. It wasn't the first time in his career life that he had had prisoners turn feral and desperate when they figured out that they had been captured. Shinobi in particular tended to be…. Suicidal, when they got to see him in person.

Either way, there were more pressing issues. One, the woman needed to remain fully restrained until they could determine how to proceed. Second, if she was more or less conscious, then a seasoned Yamanaka could perform a decent mind sweep to see if there was anything of use in there. Last time Inoichi tried his luck, he told the interrogator that there was literally nothing left, but either way, a dive into the mindscape might still be useful in seeing just how far gone, mentally wise, the woman was, and from there determine just what kind of rehabilitation the woman could need, or more immediately, now to approach her. That information could later be relayed to the Hokage, should he not be able to arrive in person until much later.

"Very well then. Let's not waste any more time then and go see her." Said the interrogator as he got to his feet and stretching his limbs. Dammed paperwork.

After getting a messenger to fetch a medic and the Yamanaka clan head, he silently followed the ANBU down to the prison cells. Upon arriving he saw three fully geared and ready ANBU surrounding the center table in battle stances. Wordlessly, he approved of their actions and quick decision making. Behind Ibiki, the ANBU that had gone to inform him already had senbon ready in each hand and was shifting into a battle position. As for Ibiki… well, he _always_ had more than a handful of surprises at the ready at any given point in time. Once seeing that everyone was at the ready, Ibiki did a quick sweep of the room. So far nothing was out of the norm. Save for the woman that was tossing slighting and moaning.

Patiently they waited; all five of them to see just what the woman did.

There were times when the woman's eyes fluttered for a brief moment, but then she would turn her head to the side while groaning, as if the light was too much. Other than that, only slight movement and twitches were seen.

Roughly ten minutes later, Inoichi entered the room, followed by one of the T&I medics carrying a handbag with a wide assortment of medical tools. Judging from the Yamanaka's face, he had been incredulous when he had been informed, but now there was no doubt. Once he regained his composure, he turned to Ibiki.

"Status?"

"Still out of it. She's been showing slight movements, but hasn't shown signs of regaining consciousness." Responded Ibiki without taking his sight away from the mystery woman. Plus he didn't need to. He had worked alongside the Yamanaka long enough to identify the man from his chakra signature alone from a distance.

The blond grunted in response. "How long has she been like this?" he asked in return.

"About 15 minutes sir. There have been no noticeable changes since she started moving." This time one of the ANBU in the room answered the question, the one with the Raven mask.

"That's way too long. She should have either woken up or fallen back to sleep by now." Inoichi was no medical expert, but he knew enough to tell that that was not normal. The rest of the occupants in the room were having similar thoughts.

Ibiki was a patient man by nature. It had served him well in all his years under the T&I department. Granted, this woman had unknowingly tested some of those limits, but he also knew when was the time to act. The human body was at times a rather fragile thing. Push just enough and you can get what you want, push too much and the damage could be irreversible. Acting prematurely rarely gave good results, but waiting too long could also prove disastrous. In this case, the woman could be fighting for her on a purely instinctive level, trying to wake up, or she could be on her last throws before finally shutting down for good. Should he wait out longer? To see if she had some remaining strength to make it on her own?

No, he decided. Now was not the time to wait any more. Over six months had passed with the woman being artificially sustained. There was slim to no chance of her making it on her own.

"Orahara." He turned to the medic, a middle aged man with thick glasses and a mop of unruly brown hair. "Quickly perform scans on the woman to see what her body's current situation is. Figure out if she's shutting down or what."

"Yes sir!"

The man quickly got to work. He pulled over the only table in the room and placed his medical bag on it, pulling a few instruments. This man was the only doctor that had been working on the woman during the last six months, making him a bit more knowledgeable as to what to expect. He also was the one that officially discovered and stated that the woman had apparently no chakra at all, and he also discovered later on that chakra based healing was nowhere near as effective on her as it would be on any other person. He had to resort to other more traditional means, just as balms, ointments, stitches and a lot of bandages. This little quirk also meant that chakra based scans where utterly useless, which was why he was checking for vital signs the old fashion way. He swore out loud as he yanked off his Stethoscope.

"She's going into cardiac arrest." Said the man as he shot up and began to desperately search his bag for whatever he was about to do. "She's having trouble breathing, her hearth rate is going through the roof, somehow her blood is clogging up all over the place as if it was thicker than molasses and on top of that, some of the organs are starting to shut down."

Ibiki quickly took charge. "What do you need to get her back under control?" He was not about to let someone just slip out right under his watch. The fact that she was fighting to remain alive, was enough to give her a chance.

"Room to work in and two litter of blood from the hospital Type A+. This is going to get messy."

One of the ANBU quickly left via shunshin to retrieve the blood before Ibiki had to even give the order. By the time the elite ninja got back, there was a frenzy of movement and activity in the room. Weapons had been put away and everyone was assisting the medic in any way they could.

It had been touch and go for several long minutes, but in the end the doctor had managed to flush the woman's system from the blockages in the veins and bring her vitals back down to a safe level. The room was a bloody mess, the sides of the bed featuring noticeable blotches of dark blood. Blood that had turned into literal poison.

But their efforts were not in vein. After maybe one hour of frenzy, the woman's life signs had normalized. Clean, healthy blood no circulating through her system, and most of the rank blood and been drawn out. She had cuts all over her body, but at least the danger had passed. In the chaos of the moment, one of the ANBU even had to roll up his sleeve and get blood drawn out of him, because they needed fresh compatible blood (he lucked out being the only compatible one that could be spared), not something that had been 6 months in a fridge. Thank Kami for blood pills.

During the cleanup and patch up, the medic explained to the others that what had apparently happen was that her body must have entered a state of artificial animation. More like artificial sustention, if anything, but she was alive... sort off. At any rate, at some point the body forgot how to function on its own, so when she was taken off life support, her body just didn't know how to function. Eventually it all just came together and began to shut down, one thing after another. That's why it took them so long to cleanse her body from all the toxins that could not be expelled and restart unresponsive organs.

In the end, they all breathed a little easier once the woman was stabilized. Their calm was once again interrupted when the medic called them all out.

"She's waking up!"

Once again, weapons were pulled out, kept discreetly out of view, and fighting stances taken. Everyone other than the medic and Inoichi stepped back, but they were keenly paying attention. They all watched in silence as the medic tried to gently nudge and coax the woman out of her slumber. Soon enough, they were greeted by a fluttering of eyes and stiff movements.

"Easy there. No need to rush." Said the medic as he began to monitor the woman's responses. There was no way to tell yet if the woman could even recognize that she was awake, or if she even understood him, but all the same he took it steady in order to not spook her and throw her into panic. "You might feel tired, sluggish and in pain, but just take it easy."

Slowly but surely, she slowly came to.

"H-huh? A-ahh?"


	2. Chapter 1: Who am I?

**Author's Notes: Hello again. In case anyone was wondering, Fiore (we will see how she got the name in this chapter) will be a civilian for most of the story, or at least the first half of it. Her injuries and amnesia simply will not allow her that type of lifestyle. But no worries, she will have plenty of things to do. Especially after Naruto makes his grand entrance in the next chapter. Darn cute little ball of everlasting energy, gotta love him.**

**Once again, constructive criticism is welcomed, and feel free to point out typos or the like. I try to comb out them little buggers as best I can, but sometimes even Word will secretly sneak a few in while I'm not looking. **

**On other things, I won't be using '-chan' and '-kun' for most of the story. I'm trying to keep the story in straight English as much as possible. There will be a few '-sama's here in there, mostly in referring to the Hokage, since calling someone 'Lord Hokage' instead of 'Hogake-sama' just doesn't sound quite right. When it comes to jutsu's I'll also be using their English versions/translations for the most part (saving some folks from having to open up Naruto wikia to figure out which jutsu was that). **

**I wanted to put this up way earlier, right after I put up the prologue, but I kept getting sidetracked with a couple of things going on at home (apparently haven't been able to get a job and still living with mom and dad suddenly turns you into the house maid by default) and homework. Well that, and I had to redo a few parts because I didn't like how they ended up in my first draft.**

**One last thing, in case anyone was wondering or just to clarify. The first part of chapter, the part you will see in italics without quotes, is an internal retrospect on Fiore's part. That's why it's in first person view. The rest of the fic is in third person view.**

**Anyway, enough with the notes.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Naruto anime/manga. **

* * *

_Extended Summary: _

No memory of your past, no friends nor family looking for you, and waking up in a dungeon after six months in a coma, only to learn that you might have been a criminal, would be enough to make just about anyone wonder what to make of their lives. And yet, the Hokage offers you an opportunity for a fresh start, to build a new life, as long as you do not harm anyone nor endanger the village. So now I go by the name of Fiore, trying to make an honest living in the ninja village of Konoha, as I recover from my injuries and amnesia, while always having a ninja or two shadow my every move. I can't help but feel alone, trapped, untrusted and unwanted. And yet, as bad as things may look, I can't help but smile at the crazy antics of a young blond boy with a knack for mischief. Naruto Uzumaki, my first real friend, and also my new little brother.

* * *

_Chapter 1: Who am I?_

_When I first woke up, I had no clue what was going on. I felt weak, tired and disoriented among other things. My senses were dulled and in a mess. Everything looked muddy and blurry. I could hear some sounds but I could not make heads or tails of what they were. It almost felt like I was underwater. The smallest of movements took great effort, and for the most part, my body simply did not listen to me._

_There were some people around me, I don't know how many. At least I think they are people. Some of them are moving, so guess they are people. Where they saying something? What were they saying? Where they friend or foe? The blond man looks cheerful enough, but is he really friendly? The other man, the one with graying brown hair looks friendly too, but I can't shake the feeling that they are holding back something. Then…. There is one more man… the one with the bandana…. He gives me the chills. Who are these people?_

_I don't know what's going on. I can't help if I'm feeling a bit scared. Did something happen? Why do I feel like something bad happened? _

_Where am I anyway? This place looks bare, and feels cold, and scary. I feel cold. This place… just doesn't feel friendly. Something must be wrong… What-What the hell happened?_

_I… I d-don't remember… What was I doing? Where was I? How did I get here? How-Who- _

_I…. don't remember anything. _Nothing_. Nothing at all. _

…

_Who am I?_

* * *

The whole room stood in complete silence for over a minute. Nobody moved nor so much as twitched. For the shinobi in the room, they were waiting for the slightest of movements in order to spring into action and attack. The woman however just blinked and looked at all of them. Or whatever she could see from her laying down position.

In truth, it took her a bit to fully get accustomed to the light, squinting for several seconds until it became bearable. The single cheap bulb screwed into the ceiling turning into a blinding mini sun wasn't doing her any favors, especially after having her eyes closed for so long. The only people within her line of sight were the doctor, Inoichi, and one of the ANBU. When she tried to turn her head to get a better look at them, she flinched and hissed softly in pain. Luckily, no one jumped the gun just yet. After getting a nod from Ibiki, the medic spoke up once more.

"Hi there. You've been asleep for quite a while." He told her in the same tone a father would use to try to comfort a sick child. He also took the opportunity to pull off an age old ninja trick: to gently extend some of his chakra over to the woman, wrapping her in a calm and soothing invisible blanket. That trick was usually used by Jounin sensei's in order to calm down their gennin charges when they were overcome with Killing Intent or to calm down nerve wracked fellow shinobi. As one of the senior medics in the T&I department, he had come to rely on that little old trick to get some of the prisoners to be a bit more cooperative,

Or to get them to lower their guard.

What? One did not simply have to patch up all of Ibiki's and Anko's playmates without picking up some of their humor or an idea or two.

And yes, more than once, had a prisoner would come out clean when they felt that they were safe and with someone trustworthy.

While the medic worked his magic, Inoichi also tried to pitch in his own two cents, moving closer to the woman so that she had a clear view of him without having to turn her head much.

"Don't try to strain yourself too much." He said while giving off a fatherly aura. "You'll probably feel pretty sore and stiff."

To his surprise and partial relief, the woman had actually tried to turn to face him. So at the very least, her eyesight and hearing were working, since she was able to recognize him as the speaker. What did worry him however was the confused and clueless look that she had. It was after all, possible that she hadn't understood a single word that they had said so far, instead she just heard 'something'. Or she could be in some sort of muddled face, where sound was completely distorted and still clearing up. If she had indeed reverted to what he usually called a 'baby state', then she was going to be in for a ton of rehab before she could even so much as take her first step. None the less, he kept a calm and cheery appearance. She hadn't flipped out in rage or panic so something was working.

While the woman had been staring at Inoichi, the doctor was preparing an IV needle with a serum. "This will sting a little and feel a little weird, but it will help you recover much faster." He said, making the woman turn back to look at him.

"Uh?" had been her only response.

Off on the side, Ibiki remained silent as he looked over the scene. Inoichi was once again engaging in small talk, conformed mainly of soothing words, serving as a distraction for the medic that was about to insert the IV needle. Mentally the man was carefully discerning the woman's reactions so far. From the looks of it, Inoichi's fears of her being literally too far gone might have not been unfounded. The few one word phrases she had said so far could be little more than baby talk for all he knew.

As with everything, it was a double-edged blade. He woman could turn out to be completely harmless, but there also went any chance of getting any useful information out of her. Still, it was far too early to call the shot. A mere hour ago he was about to write her off as dead to the world, and yet she somehow managed to pull through at the last moment. Maybe, just maybe, she would still pull through and have some answers.

A sharp yelp brought him out of his inner musings. The woman had apparently been caught by surprise by the IV needle, flinching and weekly trying to move away from the thin piece of metal. Even if she had been a full strength, she would not have gotten far since she was still fully strapped in. Ibiki ordered the ANBU nearest to the medics via hand signals to ready some chakra suppressant seals just in case. He was taking no chances.

"I did warn you it would sting." The medic softly apologized while holding down the woman's arm so that she did not manage to pull out the needle. Inoichi was also assisting him from across the bed by holding her down by her other arm and shoulder. "The pain will go away soon." He kept trying to assure her.

The woman tried to give a few more weak tugs to free her arm before she apparently stopped struggling. It didn't stop her from giving Hatori a look that said 'I trusted you! How could you do this to me?!' A bit childish in nature, but somewhat understandable.

"T-tha-at ….. hu-hur-urt." she somehow managed to say in a weak and raspy voice.

Those words did not escape any of the other people in the room. Most had thoughts along the lines of _'well I'll be dammed. She can talk.'_ Only the medic and Inoichi visibly smiled. Ibiki barely smirked, but he was actually very pleased at the sudden turn of events. At the very least they would be able to get a decent conversation going. And that was definitely something. And even better, he might just be able to pull out his bag of tricks after all. The Hokage would also be very interested to know that she can talk after all. Whether she knew anything of use or not… well that was still to be seen.

While Ibiki was doing a mental review of tools, deciding on which ones would be more appropriate to use in order to get information from the woman, (with a smirk on his face no less) Inoichi was almost giddy at the revelation that the woman had somehow retained some ability to speak. The few other cases of severe amnesia that he had worked with had also involved varying degrees of dementia. Similar cases could also present damage to the nervous system, such as in paralysis (full or partial) or semi-permanent full nervous system confusion. He had refrained from trying to possess her body since he started to work on her due to all the damage she sustained, having limited himself to memory searches and mental stability diagnostics. Now however, it might actually be worthwhile to possess her in order to get an inside view to see if there was any lasting damage.

That adventure would have to wait until she was settled down, considering that she was not all too sure about the needle in her arm, nor the person that was using chakra covered hands in order to sooth the area. A quick glance to the nearby work table next to the medic allowed the mind reader to figure out why the woman tried to get away. Orahara had picked one of the more concentrated serum mixtures. He'd been on the receiving end of those things a few times, and he would gladly testify that it felt like someone tried to push cold grape gelatin into your veins. It was by no means pleasant, but it did work wonders. It did however make a person's skin take a bluish to purple tint for a few days, not to mention your arm felt like it was freezing over, but it got you back on your feet. In this case, the woman would really benefit from it. She was getting rather skinny. Luckily, the freezing feeling to it could be eased off a bit by having someone mold warm chakra into the immediate area, which was what Orahara was doing.

"Your arm will feel cold for a while, but you will feel a lot better in a few hours." Pitched in the blond man as he loosened his grip once the woman stopped struggling as much. The decided then to change the subject. "We're actually glad to see you awake and that you can talk. We were afraid that you wouldn't wake up at all."

"Gave me a few scares, I'll tell you that right now miss." Chipped in the medic without interrupting his chakra hold. "Given how long you've been out, and how raspy your voice sounded a while ago, you probably are pretty thirsty. Mind fetching a glass of water for her _blondie_? Room temperature if you please." He said with a smirk.

Inoichi shook his head grumbling something incomprehensible that sounded like 'bossy smartass'. He did however stand up and left the room to get water.

In truth, it was a ploy. Everyone in T & I rarely used their real names at work. They would either use various code names prepared in advanced or use nicknames, the later of the two usually used within playful bickering.

The nicknaming was done to protect their identities from outsiders. Even within the village of Konoha, there were a few individuals that got a bit vindictive if someone close to them ended up in T&I due to crimes. Then again, if you ended in T&I then you were in some pretty big shit. Most prisoners left the place in body bags or on a one way trip to prison in life. Torture and Investigation was not known for kindness and tea parties. Other nations in particular did not like what happened to their spies that got caught. There were very few who didn't bother to hide their real names, namely Ibiki, whose name was so infamous in all of the nations that prisoners usually attempted suicide on the spot once they saw the man himself in front of them.

To a lesser degree, the name-calling could also appear as friendly bickering, helping to defuse tensions at work. Once in a while, this ploy also served to get the prisoners to lower their guard and get them to open up more towards the interrogators. Hatori Orahara, the medic that had overseen the odd woman for the last six months, was quite the master of this. When he and his friendly diplomacy failed to get results, then the big guns were called in. The toughest nuts to crack usually ended in Anko's or Ibiki's hands, and by that point, things get very ugly very fast.

It didn't take Inoichi long to fetch a few bottles of water. There was a fridge in the uppermost dungeon level with a few drinks and snacks for the working personnel, along with a water cooler and cheap mugs for the prisoners. He filled two bottles with room temperature water for the woman, and grabbed a few more from the fridge for himself or the ANBU if they wanted. The guy that took the blood pill would probably need one anyway. He also made good use of the time to plan out how he was going to approach the woman.

* * *

Back in the cell, the men present there were still watching the medic work. Ibiki decided to make himself known and see just how aware the woman was. So he threw on a quick Henge jutsu, changing out his black trench coat for a plain gray lab coat and changing the color of his bandana from black to off-white, giving him the appearance of a doctor or researcher. He then stepped up to the side of the bed where Inoichi had been just a few moments ago.

"Greetings." He said in his least intimidating voice, making him sound more like a professional doctor than a veteran torturer. "I know you have just woken up, but we need to ask you some questions. If you would answer truthfully, we would appreciate it. You may call me Ibiki if you wish."

He was actually pleased when the woman turned to face him, raising an eyebrow and weakly replied "…Okay?" That voice of hers was very weak as it was raspy.

She also looked to be unsure about him, with was quite the oddity for him. Most 'patients' would freak out at just hearing the names 'Ibiki' or 'Morino'. No tensing of her posture, no fear, nothing of the sort. Just some slight distrust with a hint of curiosity. Quite curious in his mind. He would add that detail into the report he would be writing up later.

Report aside, he could tell that he was not going to be able to get her to talk for long; it could be only a matter of time before her voice just failed her. The serum should help her recover quicker, along with some water to drink, but it was best not to push his luck. Simply put, she was still too weak. He would have to find a balance between working quickly and not pushing her too much.

Given that, Ibiki opted to start off with some of the standard questions that did not probe too much out of a person, not to mention it would also serve to measure just how well the woman could speak and reason. He would try to feel out the woman first, and then jump into more dangerous territories. "Can you tell us your name, miss?"

"M-my…. Na-n-…ame…?" She looked conflicted, almost as if lost in thought.

The men remained silent to give her time to think. As the seconds ticked by, she began to fidget and squirm in place. Clearly she was becoming more and more distressed. "I-I don't k-kno-ow…. C-can-nt… reem-em-memb-ber…" she said eventually, her voice thick with fear and panic.

Everyone else had been studying her reactions keenly. To Ibiki and Hatori, who were perhaps more versed in the arts of body language reading, there was no doubt that the woman was deeply troubled because she had been unable to recall her own name. Those levels of panic had to be genuine; not even the best of actors could feint memory loss to that degree. The medic decided to cut in before she scared herself even more.

"We feared as much. You were pretty badly injured when you were found, miss." Hatori spoke in a soft apologetic tone. "It's ok if you don't remember much right now; you should get your memories back as you heal."

Ibiki grimaced. If she could not remember her name, then chances were that she did not remember much of anything. Still, there might be some off chance that she remembered something else, even if it's not related to the attacks on the village. Maybe a clue to a family member that she could be sent off to once she was able to move about on her own.

"Tell me miss," Ibiki started, "what do you remember of your past? Doesn't matter how trivial it may sound. It's to figure out the extent of your memory loss."

The woman looked downcast for a bit. Hatori placed a hand on her shoulder as if to comfort and encourage her, as well as calm her down. She tried to grip the thin sheet under her harder, but she simply did not have the strength to really do so. The ninjas could tell that she was honestly trying to remember something, anything, quite desperately, but to no avail.

After a long silence, she sniffled a bit and managed to croak her answer "N-no-t-thi-iin-g."

Not a second after that, Inoichi stepped back into the room. "I'm Back. Here you go." He greeted cheerfully, having noticed the somber mood so he tried to lighten up the situation. But first, he then handed over one of the temperate bottles and a small plastic cup towards the doctor, then placing the rest of the bottles in a corner, silently offering them to the rest. "So… What did I miss?"

While Hatori opened up the bottle and gently helped the woman drink slowly, Ibiki filled Inoichi in about what he had learned during his short absence. The blond could only sigh after the quick debriefing, as he ran a hand through his hair. "Dam… that bad huh?"

"I'm afraid so." Mulled Ibiki.

The blond clan head grumbled some more under his breath. _'Way to get my hopes up.' _He did however stop his train of thoughts when he saw Ibiki out of the corner of his eyes discreetly do some hand signs. To anyone else, it would have looked like the man was simply stretching out his arm and hand, but between both master interrogators, it was code language for 'mind read him/her'. Inoichi understood the message quick enough, and offered a lopsided grin as a response, meaning that he had understood perfectly.

With a disarming smile on his face he walked over to the bed and stood next to the woman, bending down a bit to get closer to the woman. Hatori had just finished helping her with the cup of water and was placing her back down on the bed while he refilled it. "I'm sorry to hear you can't remember much. Sometimes it takes a while before memories go back into place. Usually everything is still there, but it just got turned into a big jig-saw puzzle. You probably just have to piece together the pieces as you begin to recall them until you can put the whole thing back together." He explained in a comforting tone. "I'm actually a bit of a psychologist. I help people over their fears or help them get their problems off their chest. I've also helped a few folks that lost their memories. So even if you are not able to recover some or all of your memories, I can give you some suggestions and ideas on how to restart your life."

He paused a bit to let his words sink in. One way or another, he was going to do his best to get the woman's memory back. It was just a whole lot easier when the patient in question was actually cooperating. On most prisoners, he would have foregone the small talk and simply forced himself into their minds or took over their bodies, but seeing as how they wanted to remain on the woman's good side if possible, he would have to play nice. So, he would offer her a chance to get her past back first. If not, he would have to pull out plan B. "Miss, would you like me to help you out?" he eventually offered.

The woman had been paying close attention to his worlds and appeared to be thinking it over. She looked back up to him, and then broke off to look at the rest of the room, as if looking for some indication about what to do. Hatori gave her a smile and a nod. Ibiki remained impassible and quiet. Everyone else was out of sight and hiding under a camouflage jutusu. But soon enough, she turned back to Inoichi and nodded, looking at him straight in the eyes.

There were quite a few emotions going through her eyes and face that the blond man could see. Mostly doubt, fear, and confusion, but there were also hope, fire and determination. He didn't know what exactly was going on in her head, but if she was serious about trying to get back her memories, then all the better for him. Also, seeing that little display of a strong will was a nice bonus. People with stronger wills had higher rates of gaining a full recovery.

On a more personal level, Inoichi had more respect for people with strong wills. Be it friend or foe. If she was willing to stare right at the eye of the beast and face her problems head on, then she had already gained a few points in his book.

Inoichi grinned back. _'There's fire in this one's spirit. Good.' _Usually his line of work revolved in breaking wills in order to get information, but once in a while he actually got to work _with_ the patient, instead of against him or her. It was a nice change of pace.

Not one to waste any time, he was eager to begin working. So he pulled up a stool (Ibiki had silently pulled one out of a storage scroll and offered it his fellow coworker) and sat down next to the woman. "I can start right now actually, but first we need to check if you have any sort of internal damage. Such as if you can feel or move an arm or a leg properly. This won't hurt at all really. Might be just a bit ticklish though." He chuckled a bit. "So try to stay calm and relax, ok?"

The woman was slightly confused, and maybe wondering what exactly he was up to, but she eventually took a deep breath, leaned back into the bed and nodded at him. She had some apprehensions about the whole thing, but when you are left with literally nothing, even a small chance at regaining that which you lost is usually worth the risk. Inoichi quickly went through the necessary hand signs to perform one of his clans signature moves and soon enough plunged himself into her mind.

* * *

**(A/N: feel free to look up Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time's Water Temple theme for ambience music.)**

The first thing Inoichi noticed after his justu was complete was the overall emptiness. He was standing in some sort of plane. No walls, no decorations, no nothing. Just a vast, never ending plane. Everything was shadowed in dark gray with a tint of purple, and the only noticeable feature being the presence of fog. It wasn't overly thick, but it did tend to cling to the 'floor', much like the smoke caused by dry ice.

"Well crud. She might have not been lying after all." He said to himself as he tried to see into the fog.

In his experience, most people have their minds configured or mapped out in a system of tunnels or corridors, where specific groups of information where hidden behind doors, bars or locks. The appearance of the mind changes with time, reflecting the person's growth and personality. What was once a tree house filled with colorful drawings and children's toys could turn into a museum filled with archeological artifacts and treasures from all four corners of the world. The mind simply grew and adapted.

Memory loss however, tended to present itself in a few different ways. When it was due to injury, it often was reflected as some sort of cave in or demolition of a part of the mindscape, such as a storage room could become filled with charred debris and darn right near impassible. In those cases, it was sometimes possible to salvage some things, but a good part of the memories stored in that sector would be forever lost.

When the loss was related to trauma or fear, I could show itself like rapidly putting away everything in a room and hiding it in the closet, and barring the entrance to said closet. (Somewhat like how his daughter Ino, would sometimes scramble to pick up all her toys and things and shove them away in a few seconds flat whenever he came home unexpectedly). Those cases where usually workable. It was more a thing about pulling away the barricades, sorting through the mess and putting everything back in place.

The last option would be erased memory. As a Yamanaka, that was one of the things he often did. There are plenty of reasons why someone would want to erase some memories on another person (usually are criminally related), but once in a while a person would seek to have some of their own memories erased. Whichever was the case, the results usually are reflected as empty rooms, empty bookshelves, or a suspiciously clean and organized area. If the person doing the erasing has enough time and skill, then those vacant zones created can be disguised better. If the job was properly done, then the affected area would appear undistinguishable. A bad job might look more like someone broke into your house and burglarized everything in a hurry.

If anything, the foggy mindscape he was standing in looked more like the later, a forced memory wipe but taken to the extreme._ 'More like mind destroying.'_ This was clearly done by someone that did not want the woman to reveal information. Either they went for overkill and erased everything, or the jutsu they were trying to use went out of control and took everything.

Either way, he wasn't going to find out anything just but staying put, so Inoichi began walking in a random direction. He remained alert, keeping his footsteps silent and moving lightly, and yet, despite his stealth and skill, his steps still echoed off into the emptiness.

All in all, he felt somewhat uneasy about the whole place. Just because a mindscape looked empty, it didn't mean that it couldn't be booby trapped in the highest degrees. He also kept a lookout for any changes in color, or disfigurations in the floor, or any kind of sign of something different.

It didn't take him much time to find the very few remains of her memories. Or more precisely, the memories she had just made. He found a handful of blurry, animated images, depicting himself, Hatori and Ibiki. Said images looked like holographic projections, blurring over or distorting themselves every now and then, gently floating about grouped up toguether. It almost looked right out of a creepy futuristic sci-fi movie, like one of those abandoned space stations where the last logs where being displayed on the many screens. The only reason he had found them was due to their flickering of light that created a small bright zone within the bleak fog. He went through all of the images, there were not many after all, and sadly did not find a single one that had taken place before she had woken up in the T&I building.

If anything, it was the final nail in the coffin on the subject of the mystery woman's memory loss. Inoichi highly doubted that there were other memories around in another area. He was not looking forward to be the bearer of bad news to Ibiki, because there went their last hopes of finding anything out of the woman.

'_Well, might as well as think on the bright side. I suppose she can at least function properly and start anew. She's already stored away our earlier encounter, so hopefully a second spontaneous mind wipe will not be likely.' _

Seeing that that was about everything he was going to find there, the mind reader decided to continue exploring. Maybe he could find other clues to her state of mind, or simply just gauge her overall mental health.

After much wandering around, he became surprised when he heard a soft splash. He tensed and prepared to fight off whatever mind defense would spring up on him, but nothing came. The moment he took another step, he heard the same splash. Looking down, he found the reason. Water. A thin layer of water hidden by the low rising fog.

'_How odd. A clue maybe?' _he thought to himself as he bent down on one knee to examine the floor closer. The water was about a half of inch deep and relatively clear since he could partially see his reflection on it, disfigured by the ripples caused by his feet. The surface beneath was smooth, same as the floor he had been walking on for some time now. He couldn't see nor feel a change in the floors inclination or a sudden drop, so maybe it was a natural, gradual inclination. He grumbled under his breath and straightened up. '_I better find out how big this thing is.'_

It took him a while, but he managed to figure out how big the pool was. Using a couple of conjured kunai as markers, he traced the water's edge. It ended up being about as large as a good sized pond perhaps, say about 100 yards across, but no more than about an inch deep in its center. He looked both around it and it in, yet didn't find anything else worth notice. Initially he had hoped that he had found the place where all her memories had been shoved and locked away, but no matter where he looked or what he tried, he could find anything else to the pond. No runes, no seals, no inscriptions, no nothing.

Still he felt that there had to be some kind of importance to the pond. Perhaps it was a remnant to her erased memories. A leftover podium maybe, where something of great personal importance once stood. A strong, cherished memory. Sadly, there was nothing else out of the ordinary about the shallow lake.

Deeming that he still didn't have any real answers, Inoichi decided to head towards a different part of the mindscape, giving up on pond for now. For the time being, he would shove the presence of the shallow pond into the back of his mind for future reference. Maybe he would even pay a visit to some of his clan's elders to see if anyone had encountered something of the sort.

As he kept exploring, he couldn't help but feel that something about that pond was just nagging at him, begging him to take a second look. If anything, it just fueled his determination to find out what had happened to the woman, and find out just what secrets where hidden away in her mindscape.

Eventually he found the part of the mind related towards speech. What he came across was a rather curious sight. That area was full of zounds of multicolored bubbles. Each bubble was roughly the size of a grapefruit, gently floating up and down, occasionally colliding with another bubble and bouncing off in a different direction, but never straying far away from the group. If one got too far, it would just bounce off an invisible wall and go back towards the rest. Despite the invisible wall that kept the bubbles in, he could walk among the little things without hindrance. He could even grab them without much trouble.

Upon closer inspection, each bubble held an image, a word or both. He deducted that these bubbles where the reason the woman was able to speak. A somewhat childish representation, but if it worked, then it worked. Judging from the overall quantity of bubbles, he deemed that there were about what a young teenager would have. The woman was probably in her twenties, so there was a concerning age gap at first glance that he would have to keep in mind for later reference. He would have to inform Ibiki and whoever was going to be in charge of her rehabilitation about that detail.

He spent a few minutes looking into many of the bubbles, just to get a better idea of what words she would understand and get a rough estimate of just how far her knowledge reached. _'At least these aren't as creepy as those memory images I saw earlier.'_ He thought as he kept looking.

After having studied the bubbles a bit, he got the feeling that she was around teenager level. Not exactly grand, but it could have been much worse.

He took a deep breath and sighed, letting go of the last bubble he had picked up, which bounce away back into the group. So far this mind dive of his hadn't been all that productive, and he had already been in there long enough. _'Better go ahead and wrap this up.' _

There was only one more thing on his to-do list, and that was to do a nerve system check. For that, he needed to fully take control of the woman's body. This wasn't something he did often, but it was a much easier way to detect internal injuries and damage that medics could have missed. Patients sometimes were not able to properly pinpoint or describe their injuries, especially if they were so full of pain that they simply couldn't tell left from right. For medics, it was very helpful and insightful. Finding a Yamanaka willing to dive into and control someone who was in great pain wasn't exactly easy, since it was by no means a pleasurable experience for them, unless it was a last ditch effort to get information out of them before they died. That's why it wasn't done very often. Nonetheless, Inoichi had agreed from the start, and he was not about to break his word and chicken out now.

Soon enough he found the control center, as he dubbed it. It was the focal point in the mind that all Yamanakas had to find and get to in order to take control over a person's body. This procedure usually involved temporarily pushing the victim out of the hot seat. A battle of wills was usually involved, because the Yamanaka had to keep the victim's will at bay in order to remain in control of the body, otherwise they get kicked out. Unsuspecting or sleeping people were easier to take control over, and it was much easier to stay in control for longer periods. Reason why he had used a sleep-inducing jutsu just prior to his mind transferring technique. After all, even when someone agrees to have their minds meddled with, the body's natural reaction is to try to kick out the foreign entity.

Not all too surprisingly, he had found a representation of the woman's spirit peacefully asleep at the controls, curled up on her side . Her 'body' was see-through and nor very well defined, another indicator that her personality was still setting in. He raised an eyebrow at the find, but just shook his head and smiled softly. After gently picking up her body and moving it a few paces away, he sat down and took over the controls.

* * *

"Looks like he's got things covered. What now?" Asked Hatori as he began to pack up his things.

"We will have to wait and see what he manages to find." Replied Ibiki. "Our course of action will very much depend on his findings."

After Inoichi had finished performing his jutsu, both he and the woman had gone completely still. Mind transferring or taking over someone's body was usually done pretty quickly, but searching someone's memory usually took anywhere between minutes up to an hour. In a very serious case, it could take up to several hours, such as when it came to interrogating foreign spies. No one knew just how long the Yamanaka clan head was going to be busy, but they all believed in the man and knew that he could take care of himself just fine. The only thing they could do was to wait.

The occupants in the room had relaxed their poses after Inoichi had completed his mind searching justu by order of Ibiki himself. A couple of the ANBU had helped themselves to the water bottles Inoichi had brought in earlier even. It went unsaid, but everyone by that point was very much believing that the woman was no real danger. As disappointing as it was, they would be able to figure out if she was innocent or not, and then finally put the case to rest.

"Do we have a story for her ready?" inquired the medic as he finished putting away the last of his tools. "If she does turn out to be innocent, we will have to give her something to go on. Can't exactly just… dump her in an alley with no clue about what's going on. That's just asking for trouble, not to mention down right cruel."

Ibiki mulled over what Hatori had said. In truth, he had been spending every second since he had spoken to the woman on coming up with a plausible story. It was very likely that she would be let go sooner or later, (if proven honest and of no further use to T&I) but letting her go completely Scott-free was ill advised. Someone would have to keep an eye on her for a while. "We give her part of the truth. That she was found amid the wreckage of a small town that got half destroyed but bandits or rival guild members. The town's name should be safe enough to give, but that will be about it."

The doctor rubbed his chin with one hand and nodded. "That should work. Quite plausible that she got caught in the crossfire and suffered her injuries. Yes. Definitely workable."

The scarred man nodded in agreement. After all, the best lies where those that had a hint of truth to them.

As the minutes ticked on, Ibiki had been putting the final touches to his cover story when another ANBU guard appeared beside him.

"Sir. The Hokage is on his way." The ninja, a woman by the tone of voice, informed the T&I commanding officer.

"About time he ditched those crones." Replied Ibiki with a grumble. The other ANBU plus medic silently agreed with Ibiki's comment. Most, if not all of the ANBU had little to no love for the council, save for those belonging to Danzo's personal little toy army.

The messenger ANBU stood up to full height. "Shall I inform the Hokage to come here? Or should I direct him towards one of the conference rooms?" she inquired.

"Here. Have him come down here directly. And stay out of sight. I don't want someone poking their nose into something that is none of their business." He answered.

"Right away." Was the ANBU's only response before quietly disappearing into the shadows.

Not even a full minute after the ANBU had left, did the woman begin to stir. Wordlessly, they all got back in to their 'casual' positions. Meaning only Ibiki and doctor Orahara were in plain view, everyone else was invisible via jutsu. They weren't sure who was going to be in control, but they didn't want to needlessly scare the heck out of the woman sporting a handful of weapons each.

So they all waited patiently, until she was finally awake.

"Darn… she r-really is… w-weak…" was the first thing 'she' said, in a very weak and somewhat raspy voice.

Ibiki and Hatori grinned a bit, both knowing full well who was in control. Ibiki stepped up until he was right next to the bed. "So, what's the verdict?"

"Full memory wipe." Inoichi replied using the woman's voice, while 'her' facial expression mimicked Inoichi's serious face. "I'll give you the full details later. She's so weak it's hard to speak."

"Very well." Ibiki said. "Get the full medical rundown out of the way. The Hogake is on his way here."

Inoichi nodded from his temporary body, and then turned to see the medic. Said man had just pulled out a small notepad and a pen from his briefcase, flipping it open to a blank page and began to scribble down things.

"All right, you know the drill Hot Shot. First point…"

* * *

Later that day, the Hokage, Ibiki, Inoichi and the medic, Hatori were sitting in one of the smaller and discreet offices within T&I, along with a surprise guest, Shikaku Nara. Apparently the Hokage had made a little detour to grab the Nara clan leader for his suggestions on the matter. After exchanging greetings, Shikaku was quickly brought up to speed. Inoichi and Hatori had already relayed their respective findings to both newcomers, as well as added their thoughts and concerns about the subject. While they had been discussing, the woman had been placed under sleep while a new dose of medications took their effect. One of the ANBU had remained on guard, the rest had returned to other duties.

"Then there is no hope of getting anything of use out of her." Commented the elder Sarutobi as he refilled his tobacco pipe.

"I'm afraid so. If she did know something of use, then someone made sure she would never be able to share it." Inoichi informed them.

"Good thing you keep this away from the council's ears." Shikaku added. "I'd hate to see what twisted nonsense they would have come up with."

"And that is how I want to keep it." Said the Hogake before taking in a long drag from his pipe. "Sadly, she will need to be released at some point, and a good cover story will be needed in advance to quell any unwanted inquiries."

"Tch. Dam troublesome council." Quipped the shadow user with some disdain. "But they are not the only ones that I would be wary off."

That raised a few eyebrows. Inoichi was the first to speak his mind. "Oh? Care to enlighten us?"

The Nara began to pick out some of the files from the case and began to rearrange them on the center table. "Considering the fact that the woman remained alive but had all her memories erased, then it would be better to assume that someone out there might still be looking out for her, for one reason or another." He began explaining, dead serious. "There is no doubt that someone deliberately erased her memory. That person did _not_ want her to relay some information. For some reason, they opted to erase her memory instead of killing her. Only a ninja of some skill could have done a complete memory erasing. So Chuunin or higher. I'd be more willing to bet on special Jounin or better."

"A trained ninja, even one of Gennin level, should have no trouble in killing a civilian." Inputted Ibiki. It was a thought that had indeed crossed his mind before, but he had not been able to properly place it.

"Exactly." Shikaku told them. The rest of the men where silently pondering about the future repercussions that could later have. "So either she somehow managed to fend for herself fairly well, or someone else jumped into the fray, forcing the mind eraser to flee. Ah, here we go." He said as he pulled up a sheet of paper with the details on the ANBU that went to the village where it all happened. "Considering that over a dozen ANBU had been deployed, I would consider it possible that the attacker wanted to get out of there quickly. Regardless of why, that special someone might want to finish the job later, when the timing and the situation is more in his or her favor."

Most grimaced at that revelation. "That is very concerning." Said the kage. "More questions and not much answers to go on."

"I'm also worried about this… improvised Five Pronged Seal." Said the master tactician as he placed a picture of said seal over the rest of the scattered files. "I'd wager it was meant to seal away chakra much like its complete version. And from doctor Orahara's reports, it appears that there is literally no chakra left in the woman, even after six months of having the seal removed…"

"Overkill… or overly precautious." Interrupted Ibiki.

Regardless, Shikaku nodded. "I'm not going to sugar coat this, but for all points and purposes, she was deliberately weakened. Possibly to get her into a state where she could be killed easier."

"But why the hell would anyone go through all that trouble instead of just killing her?" exclaimed the doctor as he rubbed his temples.

Inoichi was apparently one of the first to connect the dots, slamming a fist onto the table as his ire took some hold over him. "Sonuvabitch… because while some no-name woman would be easy to kill, a deadly and highly volatile missing nin is by no means easy pickings."

"So you believe that she is indeed the mad missing nin from the Taki bingo book entry?" Mulled Ibiki just loud enough for everyone to hear.

"More likely, she _was_ that missing nin. However, given her current state, she will most likely never be able to even mold chakra for the rest of her life. Might as well as think of them as two fully separate beings." Explained the Nara after handing over two pictures to the Hokage, one of the drawing from the bingo book, and one picture taken on the sleeping woman. "The resemblance is quite uncanny."

"What are suggestions on the matter, Shikaku?" asked Hiruzen after taking both pictures and analyzing them once more.

The strategist laid back in his seat and stared at the sealing for a bit. "Given that it is very probable that she was a foreign nuke nin, the first option available is to simple kill her. She's asleep right now, so it can be done quickly and without much fuss. However… given the evidence that was gathered, it gives me a whole new set of concerns." He stood up and walked over to a map of the Elemental Nations that was attacked to the wall. He then grabbed a few markers nearby "She somehow moved from her hunting grounds up in the northern marshlands into Konoha's territories. That means that she was all the way up here-" He circled the general area made up by Taki (Waterfall), Land of Rice, and the northern part of Yuga (Hot Springs). "-And then came all the way over here." He took a different colored marker and drew up a small X over the village where she had been found. "That village is over a day's run from the nearest border, that being Yuga, at Jounin speeds. Even the geography of the area doesn't match the locations where she had been sighted earlier. There must have been some reason. Either she became coherent enough to carry out a personal vendetta against someone, or she was captured and managed to escape." He placed the markers down and walked back to his chair.

"Why do you think that?" Inquired Inoichi.

"For one, hell hath no fury like that of a scorned woman." Shikaku began explaining. "Secondly, the victims that the ANBU found in that village were hand-picked. We know now that they were all either missing nin, or wanted criminals, thanks to the follow up research Ibiki conducted. Each of them was chased and hunted down. The other reported deaths were attributed to fire damage or structural collapse. They _weren't_ intentional. She either had been following them for a while until she finally caught up with them, or she escaped and turned on her captors. Most likely, that one missing nin that got away mentioned in ANBU Dog's report, is the one that placed the Five Pronged Seal and erased her memory before high tailing it."

"Then it would be possible that she has no real agenda against Konoha." theorized the kage.

"Possible, yes. And I'd wager there would have some very interesting details on how she ended up in in that village and why she went after those criminals. Well, that is assuming that she somehow miraculously recovers her memory and remains sane." Finished explaining the Nara.

"Hmm… If there is a larger scheme at hand, and she could very well qualify as either a Person of Interest or a Prisoner of War." Offered Ibiki. "We are not at open war, but there is always someone wanting to cause trouble. If someone wanted to start something, and, as Shikaku put it, if by some miracle she regains her memories, she could very well have some very important information that could be used in our favor. If she is willing to work with us at any rate."

They all thought over the possible implications and scenarios that could be involved. There had been no large international incidents that could hint to another war, but one could never be too careful. Getting too lenient and letting your guard down as a one way trip to getting blindsided. In the shinobi lifestyle, getting caught surprised was _never_ a good thing. It was better to be over-prepared for any possible situation, than to coming up short not deeming the foe worthy enough. Too many disasters had been born on account of underestimating an enemy.

As the Kage of the village, the security and wellbeing of all its citizens was Hiruzen's first and foremost priority. He could not put the lives of his village and nation at risk even at the possibility of gaining some foresight into the dealings of other nations. There were two main concerns on his mind; if the woman could ever amount to become a threat to the village and if her mere presence could instill others to attack, either aimed at her or to other villages. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting the deep aroma of his tobacco to fill his mind and calm his worries. Yes. It had been a good idea to use the good stuff that day. After exhaling, he turned to address the medic.

"Orahara. If you would, tell me what are the chances that the woman could pose as a danger to Konoha." He asked.

"Given her current situation, I would say that she will remain at civilian level for the rest of her days. She has next to no chakra, and unless she starts to regain some now that she is conscious, then she will not be able to do any feats of strength that even academy students can perform. Most likely, she will remain with some kind of handicap, just as easily becoming tired or be unable to do any kind of physically demanding activities for more than a few seconds or minutes. Also, given her memory loss, she probably doesn't know _now_ any form of self-defense. Most likely, she will be about as deadly as a civilian house wife with a kitchen knife-" explained the medic.

"Don't let my wife hear that last comment." Shikaku interrupted him with a smirk on his face, getting a few chuckles out of the other men.

"Good thing I'm not married to her then." Hatori grinned back, earning a snort from Inoichi and a few more chuckles from the rest.

"Yeah yeah. Have your fun." Despite the comment, Shikaku took it all in stride. They had been working together long enough to enjoy petty jabs and poke fun once in a while.

"Anyway, for all practical points and purposes, she'll be a civilian. The only potential problems would be if she started to show signs of madness. And if for some reason, she regained higher-than-civilian level chakra reserves, it can be remedied by applying chakra suppressing binds or seals. That aside, she will need physical therapy to regain proper use limbs. Psychological therapy would be optional but also a good idea." The medic finished explaining.

The medic's assessment had actually brought up some good news for the rest of them. If he was in the right, then the woman was not likely to pose as a danger, or at least not directly. It also served to ease some of Hiruzen's worries, and gave him a few ideas on what to do.

"Very well. Let us keep her alive. Given that she is no immediate threat to us, we can incorporate her into the village. She will need to have a guard with her at all times, or at least for say…. Six months. With her as bait, we might be able to flush out something interesting." The Professor offered to the others. "And with enough work and luck, we might be able to instill the Will of Fire in her."

The other shinobi sitting at the table contemplated the offer. If they played their cards right, it was a win-win scenario. If someone got tried to attack the woman, or showed more than fleeting curiosity, then they had dibs on the offender and could interrogate them as they pleased. And, the possibility of gaining the allegiance of a skilled shinobi only sweetened the deal. Hell, there was a certain glint in Ibiki's eyes that could also mean that the man was already mentally clearing out his schedule in order to make room for new arrivals.

"That could very well work." Shikaku smiled after spending a few seconds in his 'thinking pose'. "Preferably, a Jounin or ANBU passing off a Chuunin guide or helper would be best during the initial part of her adaptation to day to day life. That can later be switched out for unseen guards. If not, then a Chuunin aide and an ANBU tagging along in the shadows could also work. That way she can imprint on some people, and we can start to gain her loyalty."

They all shared words of agreement at that. The plan was solid and covered all major bases.

"Now that that's settled, what are we going to tell her? And what are we going to tell the council if they start to get too curious?" asked the Yamanaka clan leader.

"If I may," Ibiki said as he passed around a few pages to the rest of the men. "I had prepared a few cover stories in advance. I believe this one is the most fitting one."

Shikaku was quick to read through it. He was actually impressed with the story. "This is very well thought out. That should keep the council happy."

"She's going to need a name. I guess we can let her pick one though." Commented Inoichi after reading his copy. "And I'll have to keep my schedule open if I'm going to play therapist for a while."

"Excellent. Well then gentlemen, how about we all pay the young lady a visit and inform her about future arrangements, hmm?" The age old Hokage asked the rest with a smile on his face.

They all shared smirks or smiles. After picking up all the papers and handing them back to Ibiki for safe keeping, they headed back down into the dungeons.

* * *

With the meeting adjourned, the five shinobi went about to put their upcoming plans in motion. The first order of business was to take the woman out of the high-danger dungeon cells into one of the more comfortable (and secretly reinforced) holding cells. Shikaku and Inoichi had gone about doing the actual transfer, seeing as the woman was still asleep from the last round of medications, and carried her to her temporary residence.

The room that was picked for her was sparsely furnished, containing a bed (western style, instead of a futon, easier to get up given her condition), a small bed side table, a desk, a chair, and a chest of drawers. The walls were bare, having only a soft blue color for decoration, and a single small window allowed sunlight into the room. The room itself was a bit small, but it wasn't overly constricting. On one side of the room, there was a door that led to a small bathroom. Nothing fancy, but overall everything was in good condition. Those type of rooms were usually used hold certain people of statue while their investigation was in process. Hatori had been the one to suggest the room change, since being cooped up in a plain gray room did not help much in terms of mental recovery.

After a quick dusting and change of sheets (peach colored with multicolored seashell prints, Inoichi's idea), Shikaku placed the woman on the bed. Soon enough, Hatori arrived carrying a tray with a small bowl of porridge and a cup of tea, and not much later, Ibiki came in followed by the Hokage. The last two had been busy ironing out the kinks of what would be the official story, since she was about to become more of less public knowledge, or at least within the Intelligence building.

They had agreed beforehand exactly what they would tell the woman, and how they would go about it. Hiruzen would present himself and handle most of the talking, with some input here and there from Inoichi and Hatori. Shikaku had agreed to stay with them, but had decided that he would remain hidden in the shadows, as to better judge the woman. He had come up with some excuse about 'being too troublesome to have to present himself too.' The others had rolled their eyes at the lame excuse but they let it slide. After bringing in a few stools to sit on, and everyone getting into their agreed positions, the medic among the group went about waking the woman up. It took a bit, but after a few minutes she was finally awake.

Being the closest one, Hatori was the first to speak up. "Hey there. You fell asleep while my blond friend over there" He signaled towards Inoichi over his shoulder, earning a 'hey!' out of him. "was doing his checkup. We got the results and went ahead with moving you out of that room and into this one. You will be staying here until you can move around without aide."

"We figured you wouldn't want to be cooped up in place as dreary as that." Said Inoichi from his spot at the foot of her bed. "But if I remember right, it was that bastard over there that was going on and on about 'this is by no means a proper place for a lady to recover.'"

The medic just huffed at the comment, dismissing it with a halfhearted wave of a hand, but grinned all the same. The woman had also smiled and managed a small giggle at their antics, apparently already getting used to their antics and getting more comfortable around them.

"Anyway, there is someone we want you to meet." He helped the woman into a sitting position, placing a second pillow behind her back and then moved aside so that the woman had a clear view of the Hokage. The kage himself got out of his seat and took a pair of steps closer to the bed. "This is Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage. Our village's leader."

"Hello there miss." Greeted the old man. "You may call Hiruzen if you wish."

The woman turned to see the new person, and studied him briefly. The Sarutobi elder had left behind his pipe and his hat back in Ibiki's personal office. He kept the rest of his Hokage robes. All in all, he looked like a sweet old grandpa. The woman didn't scrutinize him much; more like just looked at him big tired but curious eyes. He didn't see fear in her, just honest curiosity.

"Umm… Hi…" she managed to raise a hand a bit in order to wave a weak hello. She then turned to face the medic. "What's a Sandaime Hokage?" she asked innocently.

The men did a mental sweat drop, but quickly composed themselves. They all knew that her memory was shattered, and Inoichi informed them of the possibility that she had limited knowledge on day to day things. If this was any hint, then history, geography and just about any other schooled subject was next to unknown to her. Luckily, they had prepared for such a possibility, having already roughly planned out a crash course in academics. They still needed to find a suitable tutor. Someone hopefully with some medical background that also knew how to handle people with disabilities and/or mental handicaps. Orahara had already volunteered to oversee her physical rehabilitation, and Inoichi would help out with any traumas or mental issues, but they still needed someone to teach her math and other social skills.

In other matters, her voice was much better than earlier. Still a little low in volume from her weakness, but she wasn't stuttering anymore. The change in medication must have done her some good. She also didn't look as pale either.

The medic was the first to snap out of his thoughts. "A Kage is the leader of village. Hokage is the title given to the person that leads this village in particular. Other villages have their own kages, but the title is a little different." He explained while rubbing the back of his head.

The explanation was tweaked, and a half truth at that. None of the shinobi wanted to fully show all the cards in there hand before being completely sure that the woman was no enemy. So at least for a while, they would have to resort to twisted truths and even more partial lies. Just enough to give her the general gist of things, but not enough so that whatever she learned while under their care could be used against them.

Not like they didn't already do something similar towards the whole village. There was always some dressing up when it came to some topics, and some pieces of information never made it to the general public. They had to make sure, lest they wanted to have a civil war on their hands, or worse, another shinobi war.

"Oh." At the very least the woman seemed to have accepted the explanation.

Sarutobi just smiled softly. Part of him just couldn't help but be reminded of his second grandson, Naruto. The boy may have not been related to him by blood, but in his mind, he was practically family. A few times he had gone behind the council's back and snuck the little gold haired boy into his clan grounds to hide him from the harshness of the village, or just to spend some time with the boy. His son, Asuma, had gotten along pretty well with Naruto in his earlier years. Actually, he was willing to bet his Hokage hat that Asuma would secretly sneak treats (or pranking equipment) to the little ball of sunshine, just for the laughs. There was just this deep curiosity towards everything and everyone that both shared.

And maybe he was really going soft. More than once he wished that he could just retire to spend the rest of his years with his family and grandsons, council and world be dammed. And yet, for them, for his family and grandsons, they were the very reason he had not handed over his hat. There was no clear candidate to succeed him. There was no one in hell that he would allow the hat to go to Danzo or his once-teammates. There were a few people that he saw as worthy Hokages after him, but none showed interest in the position. Part of him was starting to believe that he would have to wait until Naruto was groomed enough to take over…

No, he could think about that later. Right now, there were a few things that he had to do before anything else.

He cleared his throat once and addressed the lady. "Well miss, I'm fairly sure that you must still feel tired so I'll try to keep this short. Is that all right with you?" he asked her calmly.

"O-okay." She agreed and shifted into a more comfortable position with the help of the doctor.

"Very well." He smiled and placed both hands leisurely behind his back. "About six months ago, there was an attack on a small farming village not very far away from here. From what we were able to figure out, it looked like it had started as a fight between two groups of people. There was some evidence found that suggested that it might have been due to a disagreement between criminals. From there, it just got out of hand and ended up burning down half of the village. After the fires were stopped, a search was started in order to find the criminals that started it all. Some of them were found dead, caught by the fires or the crumbling buildings, but we guess that some of them managed to get away."

He tried to keep a serious persona, one that would not intimidate her, keeping his tone of voice even and steady, much like how an adult would do when lecturing children. And yet, he once again he found himself watering down the truth and twisting it towards his own ends. It was however a necessary evil, one that he partook on far more often that he would have liked to admit. It didn't mean that he liked it one bit, but at the end of the day, it was all for the village. And at this point in time, lying at least in part was crucial to get this woman's cooperation. So far, he had the woman's full attention.

"You were found unconscious trapped under part of a building that had collapsed. The people that found you managed to get you free and take you to safety. Medics treated the wounds that they could find, but they could not get you to wake up. Since they couldn't figure out what else to do, they decided to bring you here, to Konoha, so that a more experienced doctor could treat you.

"Under normal circumstances, you would have been taken to the hospital, but there was one particular detail about your situation that made us decide to do otherwise." He took a deep breath to steady himself for the following part. "A few survivors claimed to have seen a woman that looked very much like you with the criminals before the fight broke out. No one has been able to figure out if you were in league with the criminals or just happened to be there at the time."

There was a small silence shared among those present. The woman had broken her eye contact with the Kage and became lost in thought, looking down to her hands and the rim of the bedsheets. She became downcast, her mind obviously coming up with various scenarios, none of them exactly pleasant. She began to fidget some more after coming up with a few ugly conclusions.

"I… I was in the fight? Maybe?" she asked the men, pleadingly looking at each of them, hoping that her idea was wrong.

Part of Hiruzen died when she saw her face. It was the same look Naruto had when he was asking him why the village hated him so much. Another painful reminder that lies would never solve anything. All he could do now was to carefully orchestrate his web of lies in order to motivate her to get better. And maybe one day, he would tell her what really happened, but only when she was ready to handle it. He wasn't sure when that day would come, or even if it would come.

"You might have been in the fight. We couldn't find anyone that could confirm it though." He answered her apologetically.

"We were actually hoping to ask you in person, to see if you knew what had happened. But you lost all your memories, so we don't have any way of knowing now." Inoichi added trying to calm her down after having seen some signs of fear.

She looked at all of them, confusion clear in her eyes. The men weren't showing it, but they were even more dumbfounded than she was.

"Then… I didn't do… anything bad?" she asked them again.

"Not as far as we know of." Hiruzen responded for the group, with a small comforting smile.

The woman seemed relieved at that, releasing the breath she had been holding without realizing it. The men allowed her to relax a bit, having covered one of the more delicate subjects in their agenda. Their reactions were a bit more mixed. Hiruzen was glad that she had taken it all well enough. Inoichi was somewhat disappointed since the story hadn't apparently jogged any kind of memories, but he was also relieved that she hadn't freaked out, neither aggressively or into despair. Hatori was estimating her mental age to be somewhere between six and ten years of age; he would have a lot of making up to. Ibiki and Shikaku remained impassive, both simply staying in the sidelines and letting things unfold.

"At any rate, since we can't confirm that you were guilty of any crime, we will eventually let you go free. Once you can take care of yourself, you will be allowed to live in the village. You will be watched for a while of course, just as a precaution, to make sure you don't get into or cause any trouble. There are a few more conditions to the deal, but we can fill you in on them slowly while you are still recovering." Hiruzen added after a bit as he sat down on the only chair in the room. "Don't really want to bore you with all the details right now." He chuckled.

She remained quiet for a bit, trying to think it over. She didn't jump right in at the offer, so either she either didn't fully understand what was going on, or she was having more questions. There was also some possibility that she was trying to search underneath the underneath for some hidden meaning or alter motive.

"How will… will I live? Will I stay here?" she asked.

The Kage gave it some thought before answering. "While you are recovering, this room will be your own. After that, I can see about getting you an apartment and a job. I'll give you some options and let you pick when the time comes. How you spend the money you earn will be fully up to you from that point on." He finished with a smile.

"I don't have… family?"

'_So that's what she meant.'_ He couldn't really blame her, who would want to wake up alone, lost, and without any friends nor family. A sad reality, but this was one part of the story he would not have to lie about.

"We tried to find out if you had any family. You already meet Ibiki, he's the man over there in the back." Ibiki merely raised a hand so that she could identify him in case she had forgotten already. "He's actually the leader of the village's Intelligence division. I had him look all over for anyone that had reported a missing friend or family member that matched your description. I'm afraid even he was unable to find anything. We are still looking out thought."

She thought it over a bit before finally nodding sadly. "All right."

Inoichi broke the uneasy silence by scooting his stool a bit closer to the bed, surprising the woman a bit. "How about we find you a name? Can't keep calling you miss or 'hey you', now can we?"

The change of subject was welcomed, her earlier sadness forgotten for the moment. "My name?" she was interested.

"That's right." Replied the blond. He opened up one of the pockets in his vest and pulled out a folded piece of paper which he passed to the woman. "Earlier today I looked up some girl names and wrote some down to see if you liked any of them. I hope my writing isn't too bad, can you read them?"

She took the little piece of paper and carefully unfolded it. Inside there were maybe fifty or so names for women. Most of them were a bit generic and plain, but there were a few uncommon ones thrown into the mix. She read a few out loud. "Akira… Aurora… Elia… Keiko… Sheena…"

"There's a few more in the back. Oh, and the ones that are circled are the ones that I personally liked better." He grinned a bit. He hadn't been sure if she could read properly, but at least this little test had put some of his worries to rest.

He also wondered if she would take interest in one of the names he had circled. Ouka, the name he had come to believe might have been her original one. The rest of the names he circled were related to flowers, autumn, fire and water. Firstly, because he ran a flower shop, so names of rare or beautiful flowers were often popular with women. Secondly, her slightly frizzy brown hair made him think of the changing of colors in the plants and trees during fall. Thirdly, because of that slight spark of a fiery personality he had seen earlier. And lastly, since the main theme going on in her mindscape was water, he decided to give it a shot. He had also caught Hatori sneaking a few peaks at the list, saying a few names that he found nice or pointing out certain ones on the paper that he also liked. Even the Hokage pitched in a few names. Internally, he remembered when he had sat down with his wife not so long ago to pick a name for their unborn daughter. Slightly sentimental from his part, but he didn't mind much really.

To his surprise and amusement, she didn't so much as bat an eyelash towards the name Ouka. She was however narrowing it down to a few names, flipping back and forth between both sides of the paper. He was getting curious about which ones she preferred. She then did something he wasn't expecting; she folded part of the paper inwards. He figured out why quickly enough, to compare some of the names with more ease, without having to change sides. From what he was guessing, she must have been down to two names.

"Fiorelynn…" she said shyly, looking up to the men for approval, hoping that her pick wasn't wrong.

He hadn't suggested that name. Nor had Hatori or the Hokage. It took Inoichi a moment to register what had really happened, but then he chuckled. _'Well, I'll be dammed; she mixed some of the names. Flower and waterfall. Not bad actually. Yup, she's got some spunk in her.'_

"That does sound like a nice name." agreed the Kage.

Hatori grinned off to the side. "I wouldn't have thought about putting two names together."

Even Ibiki smirked and nodded in approval. Shikaku also smirked from his hiding place, not that anyone could see him anyway.

"Fiorelynn it is then. Guess we can call you Fiore for short too." Said Inoichi. "Well Fiore, welcome to your new life."

Fiorelynn smiled in response, happy that her pick had gained everyone's approval, and also glad finally have something to call her own. Her name.


	3. Chapter 2: Readjusting

**A/N: yay i got my first reviews! This took quite a bit longer to write than I had originally expected. I think I gutted the whole chapter like 4 times until I was happy enough with it. Anyway, this chapter is rather long, but things are finally moving forward, now that i finally got over the dam writer's block. **

**Now, on with the story and enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Naruto anime/manga. **

_Extended Summary: _

No memory of your past, no friends nor family looking for you, and waking up in a dungeon after six months in a coma, only to learn that you might have been a criminal, would be enough to make just about anyone wonder what to make of their lives. And yet, the Hokage offers you an opportunity for a fresh start, to build a new life, as long as you do not harm anyone nor endanger the village. So now I go by the name of Fiore, trying to make an honest living in the ninja village of Konoha, as I recover from my injuries and amnesia, while always having a ninja or two shadow my every move. I can't help but feel alone, trapped, untrusted and unwanted. And yet, as bad as things may look, I can't help but smile at the crazy antics of a young blond boy with a knack for mischief. Naruto Uzumaki, my first real friend, and also my new little brother.

* * *

Chapter 2: Readjusting.

_I guess this will be my first official entry in my diary. Doctor Orahara suggested that I start to write down what I do during the day, in case I ever forget again. He even got me this little notebook to use as a diary. It's got little cartoon kitties on the cover! They're really cute! _

_Anyway, Hatori (that's the doctor's name) also said that writing frequently would also help get better control over my hands. It's been about three months maybe since I woke up, but I still feel stiff all over. My handwriting looks little better than chicken scratches, but I guess I should improve as I go. I actually wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow I couldn't read what I'm writing down right now. I'm even having trouble reading what I just wrote. Yikes. _

_I guess I'm getting distracted. I'm supposed to write what I'm been doing and learning so far, so here goes:_

_After that day I woke up, I've felt at a complete loss. I couldn't remember my past or even my name. Heck I still can't remember a single dam thing. Still, With Inoichi's help I picked out a new name "Fiorelynn", or Fiore for short. Inoichi later told me that 'Fiore' means flower or bloom, and 'Lynn' means waterfall. I didn't know that when I was picking my new name; I just thought it would have sounded pretty. Either way I'm actually glad I picked something nice. That same day I also meet a few others, the village elder Hiruzen and the investigator Ibiki. I've seen the grandpa a few times, usually about every week, and he's really nice. The other man, Ibiki, I haven't seen him at all lately. The others said that he had to get back to work. Maybe he's a busy man… did I mention he gave me the heebie-jeebies? Might be because of the scars I guess. _

_The next day was when my rehabilitation started. In the beginning it was mostly slow and gentle movement exercises, and they kept adding things more and more difficult (but nothing impossible). It's paid off, because three weeks ago I was able to walk on my own for the first time! Without holding onto the walls or anything either. Yay for me! Inoichi and Hatori even began to take me out to see the village. I dunno why it's called a village because it looks more like a city, since it's so big and all. Village or city, it looks like a nice place to live. _

_I've was also assigned other classes, like math, geography, history, and other stuff. Funny thing was, that even though I can't remember my past, there are still some things that I still 'know'. Like I can tell a dog from a cat, what's a melon and what's an apple, and I somehow knew that the sun rises in the east. Inoichi thinks it's because I lost my memory, not my common knowledge, whatever that means. My teacher, she's a nice lady too, her name's Eliza. She sometimes tells me stories from when she was a teacher to little kids. She's retired now, but she agreed to be my teacher for the next few months._

_Hopefully soon I'll be able to live on my own. My room is nice and all, but it feels small and lonely after a while. I wonder how it will be living on my own._

_-Fiorelynn_

* * *

6 months later…

It was finally summer. The last of the spring showers had finally passed, and gave way to the hot temperatures day and night. Summer in Konoha wasn't as bad as say… Suna, but the humidity could still get to most people. Especially if one of the tropical storms off from the coast managed to go inland, but that was another matter.

For most people, summer equaled vacations. It was that time of the year were children could be seen playing freely in the streets or in parks during the day. A time when teachers could get a breather, after having to keep control over two or three dozen not-quite-so-perfectly-behaved-little-angels, or just to catch a break from their pranks. Regardless, it was a time for being outside, playing in the sun, running through the tall grass and summer flowers, and basking in the crisp wind that came with the evening.

For some, it was also a time of celebration. For the students of either the Ninja Academy or the civilian schools, early summer was the time when the eldest of the classes graduated. Those that did not graduate would have to wait until winter for their next shot at graduating. But if they did graduate, then they could finally show off what all their hard work had been for. Fresh Gennin could be seen with their newly minted Konoha headbands, engraved with the village's signature spiral leaf, working and training under the supervision of a senior Jounin ninja. Civilian graduates could pick up a trade of their chose and show off their own skills.

That being said, Konoha was a lot livelier than usual, aflutter with excitement, joy and pride.

But for one person, one young woman with no memory of her past, this summer marked a graduation of sorts of her own.

* * *

The last nine or so months had been a mini hell for Fiorelynn. Imagine, one day you wake up, in extreme pain and you can barely move. Then you realize that you are in some place you have never seen, a dab gray room completely bare of all decorations. You see some people hovering over your face, people that you do not recognize. And then, to top it all off, you soon become aware that you don't remember a single thing about your life. No names, no faces, no places, nothing. Not a single dam thing that you could confirm that you have done at some point or another, or a person that you have meet at least once.

That was the sort of nightmare Fiore had woken up to.

Oddly enough, the men that had surrounded her didn't try to harm her in any way, well save for that one moment were the doc grabbed her arm to place the IV needle. She was not in any immediate danger, or at least no one had made any kind of threatening moves or gestures, but even in her wacked up, drugged over, and nearly shattered mind, she could tell that something had gone wrong. Very wrong.

Her suspicions were later confirmed, when the village elder, or Hokage as he had introduced himself, had claimed that she had been found unconscious and injured in a town that had been attacked by a group of bandits or criminals of some sort. To add salt to the wound, someone had apparently claimed that someone that looked somewhat like Fiore had been among the bandits when all hell broke out. For better or for worse, no one had been able to confirm or deny if she had been involved in anything illegal as of yet. Maybe she was, or maybe she wasn't. And since she had sustained some pretty serious injuries, or at least serious enough to destroy every single one of her memories and put her in a coma for six months, there was no way to prove or disprove her innocence.

However, the elder had decided to offer Fiore the benefit of the doubt, allowing her to recover and rebuild her life within the village of Konoha, or if some relative of hers appeared and could verify that Fiore was their lost family member, she would be free to return to her home. Either way, there weren't exactly many other options available. It was either to suck it up and try to get back on her feet, or literally give up on living, and thereby asking for some sort of merciful death. She might have not had any reasons to continue living, but withering away and dying wasn't very appealing at all.

So she picked option 1: intensive rehab.

For the following months, Fiore spent her days under the watchful eyes of mainly three people: Hatori Orahara, the medic; Inoichi Yamanaka, the psicologist and flower shop owner; And Eliza Toremitzu, a retired teacher that was going help her catch up on academics and general knowledge. The first two had been among the people Fiore had seen when she had just woken up, and Eliza was introduced on her third day of rehab. Once in a while, Fiore would get a visit from someone else, usually the Sandaime, Shikaku (a close friend of Inoichi's that was covering for him) or Miyumi, an assistant of Hatori's. The visits from the later three were rare; instead the former trio became her prime caretakers.

As the days turned into weeks, Fiore soon got familiar with her three caretakers, and how each worked. Her mornings consisted of breakfast, her first round of medications for the day, and physical therapy with Hatori. The man was almost single handedly responsible for teaching Fiore how move about and walk once again. The man was a bit of a prankster, who liked to poke fun every now and then (mainly at Inoichi) and was very patient with Fiore as she was trying to relearn how to use her limbs. He was a bit demanding in his routines, but he knew well enough to not push Fiore beyond her limits.

After lunch and another round of meds, Eliza would take over. She was a stern lady in her mid or late sixties, with her silver hair tied up in a neat bun and her peachy skin portraying various wrinkles, a testament to her age. She usually wore formal robes that were perfectly pressed and complemented her attire with simple, yet elegant jewelry, giving off a professional appearance. Nothing extravagant, but functional and very presentable. Despite her perhaps cold outlook, Eliza was actually very warm and kind when it came to teaching. She had gone through great lengths to figure out which teaching methods were easier for Fiore to grasp, as well as guiding her nearly by hand through most subjects while not making Fiore feel utterly dumb nor treating her like she was some retarded school child. Eventually, Fiore came to think of her of a stern-yet-caring mother figure.

Around sundown, Inoichi would take Eliza's place in watching over Fiore. The blond haired man was the most fun to be around in Fiore's opinion. He was funny, and would find all sorts of little games or toys that would make her smile and laugh. In a way, it was like a break from all the 'work' she had to do during the day, so it was a nice refreshing way to end the day. Fun and games aside, Inoichi would show her various books and pictures of various places or things, to see if anything managed to trigger some memories. Other times he would give her some activities to find out what sort of things she liked. He also helped out with Fiore's state of mind and overall emotional state. More than once had the man pulled Fiore out of a slump or out of depression, encouraging her to strive for a better future for herself. Fiore was actually immensely grateful for that.

After that was dinner, more meds, a little free time, and then bed time. Then it was just rinse and repeat. Day in and day out.

The routine continued for a little over two months, until Fiorelynn finally managed to stand and walk on her own again without help. Once she was steady enough on her legs, the schedule was changed so that each day she would spend it with only one of her caretakers, alternating every other day, and they could take her out of her room and show her around if they wished. Hatori soon found himself teaching her some basic first aid, so that she could address her own wounds if needed, as well as teaching her how to make balanced meals, pointing out what to eat, and what to avoid considering her medications. Eliza would usually take her out to do some shopping in the mornings, getting her familiar with home economics, and spend the rest of the day covering the day's subjects in one of the nearby tea shops her teacher liked. Inoichi usually took her to some of the nearby public parks and gardens to relax from her other two caretakers. When he found out that she had taken interest in all the unusual plants and flowers, he got the idea of taking her to his shop to help out. Gardening soon became a hobby of hers, having found it relaxing and not straining, so he allowed her to work in his flower nursery.

Still, even with all the progress she was making in her road to recovery, there were days when she just felt like doing nothing, depression and loneliness kicking in. She lost count of how many times she wondered if she had no friends or family somewhere out there, and if she did have, she asked herself many times over if they had not been searching for her. Or even worse; had they given up on finding her? Did they believe her to be dead? Or did they just not want her back?

Depressing thoughts indeed.

But that was only one of Fiore's new concerns.

As disturbing as it was to have someone look into your mind, Inoichi was rather professional about it, letting her keep her private thoughts and opinions to herself. It wasn't really an unpleasant experience per say, but it always left her feeling weird afterwards. After about three months of working with him, the blond man had confessed that he had not been able to find a single trace of her past prior to when she had just woken up. It was a hard pill to swallow, but after some convincing Fiore decided to stop trying to figure out who she _had_ been, and started to work towards who she _wanted_ to be. Happy and proud of her decision, the Yamanaka shifted strategies in order to help her achieve her goals.

Fiore's second largest concern became more and more evident after about her forth month of recovery. In her weakened state it wasn't as easy to see but once she had gained a little bit of mobility it did start to become rather obvious. Regardless of now nicely they tried to hide it, Fiorelynn was for all accounts and purposes a prisoner.

Initially she just disliked being confined to her room day and night, thinking that it was just too stuffy after being locked up after so long. At nights, after all of her day's activities were concluded, she was completely locked inside. No such thing as sneaking after hours for a midnight snack for Fiore. At first, she just shrugged it off as some kind of paranoia or fear that she would wander out and get lost, but after a few months of being able to go out into town and come back safely at nightfall, it just felt very suspicious that her caretakers would still lock the door. The second part as to why it felt weird was that she was in no common residential building, nor hospital. It was more like the sleeping quarters in some military facility, considering the large number of fully geared ninja that were all over the place. What put her on edge was that almost all of the ninja she saw while going out or coming back in were on edge, ready to spring into action at the first sight of trouble.

So… what the hell was she doing in the midst of a bunch of trigger happy ninja who looked like they had four or five too many cups of coffee, with trice as many teaspoons of sugar, and just came back from war?

She could understand seeing a good number of ninja, and truthfully expected to always have at least one of those sneaky types shadowing her every move at any given time of day, but the number she saw that were borderline paranoid just… made her feel _very_ uneasy. The Hokage had told her that she was going to be watched until she could be fully trusted, but when it came down to it, Fiore could not get the nagging feeling out of her system that there was more to it than she was being told. Some… other reason as to why she was kept under such close surveillance.

Did they fear her for some reason? She really was in no shape whatsoever to start causing trouble or raising hell. She wasn't trusted with any kind of pointy object that could be used as a weapon either (unsupervised), so that was also out of the question. Then… what could it be?

No matter how much she thought and pondered about it, it just made no sense at all.

At some point, Fiore simply concluded that there was more than meets the eye about her situation, but it was neigh unlikely that anyone was going to tell her the truth. Not her caretakers, and certainly not the Hokage. Someone knew the truth, or at least part of it, she was sure, yet she was not privy to that information.

It might have been unintentional from their part, but that point in time was when the first seeds of doubt and distrust were sown into Fiore's mind. After that, anything and everything she was told she handled with a certain level of skepticism. Even from her caretakers. Or more likely, _especially_ from her caretakers.

After all, since when had anything really been free in life?

Fiore knew, deep down, that sooner or later, she was going to have to pay up. Someone had been paying for her meals, clothing and medication, and some day, they would want to be repaid in full. Not overly surprisingly, the Hokage had informed her on one of his visits that all her treatment had tallied up quite a debt. When she saw the official numbers, she almost had a heart attack. Heartbroken and downcast, she asked how exactly she was ever going to pay off all that debt. That's when the village leader explained that she had already begun to pay it off. All the time she had spent working in Inoichi's shop and gardens, the man himself had taken what he would have paid anyone else for the same work and put it all towards paying off Fiore's debt. It wasn't a whole lot, but it was something. The kage then informed her that once she got full time job, that a small part of her weekly salary would be automatically deducted and applied to her medical expenses. She also was free to make additional payments whenever wished.

It was a sad day when she realized that she had gathered several years' worth of debt without even realizing it at first. Another thing to write up on her list of concerns.

Even with that aside, she knew that something wasn't quite right. It was hidden in the half smiles or in the hollow voice. There was just this 'something' that made her feel like she was being lied to on a frequent basis. Somewhere between the withheld information and what she suspected were half-truths, Fiore came to realize that there was something fairly big hidden underneath a pleasant exterior and caring demeanor.

But most importantly, she _knew_. She knew that something was up.

If her caretakers wanted to lie in her face while sporting a perfect smile, then she too could play that game. And she would play it well. Let them think that she was as clueless as a child. Let them believe that she was fully under their thumb. In the meantime she would prepare. Prepare for whatever they threw at her. And she would take it all in stride, prove that she was better.

'_Let's see how they like it when the truth finally comes out.' _

Regardless of the real reasons behind whatever was going on behind her back, as the weeks ticked by, there were times when she felt increasingly hopeless, trapped, and most of all, lonely. Her full recovery still looked to be far off into the horizon. The chances of a long lost relative coming to pick her up were going slimmer and slimmer with each passing day. And her debt… well that just looked like it had no end. It would be a miracle if she managed to pay off all that before she turned into an old crone.

More often than not, she would stay awake into the night, trying to find some reason to live for. Something to look forward to. Or at least just something to make her day to day life more enjoyable.

Thankfully, Inoichi somehow always managed to get her out of her funk. He alone knew most of what was going inside Fiore's mind, and did his best to cheer her up. He was usually bluntly honest about some things, even if he did dance around a few certain topics. But for the most part, yes, he was honest and well meant. Inoichi was also the only one of her caretakers that encouraged Fiore to pick up oh hobbies and to do something new, just for the fun of it.

Perhaps, in hindsight, Fiore liked and trusted the mind reader most out of her caretakers. Coincidentally, he also gave her the longest 'leash', letting her run nearly free in his gardens and his shop's nursery without coming to check up on her every thirty minutes.

At any rate, she dearly hoped that the day would soon come, when the Hokage and her caretakers would find her healthy enough to live on her own. When that day came, it would be one of her bigger steps in moving forward in life. And maybe, just maybe… she it would also be the day she started to get some long delayed answers.

And then, one day, she got her wish.

* * *

After much thought over whether or not to release Fiore into the general public, all six of the people involved with her monitoring and rehabilitation had deemed that she had passed their unannounced tests and was safe enough to release from T&I's thumb. Fiorelynn's three caretakers had vouched that she was ready to live on her own and that she had not shown any hostility towards the hidden village. Her sudden distrust and reservations had been cause for alarm initially, but they all accepted that it would do be useful so that she didn't take anything for granted nor get taken advantage off.

And so, after months of weekly meetings and updates on her development, all six of them had come to the consensus that she was good to go. All that was left to do was to officially discharge her from her rehabilitation and to get her started on living on her own. On the agreed date, Inoichi was selected to go fetch her and bring her to the Hokage Tower to wrap up said paperwork.

A few days later, the blond mind reader had showed up on Fiore's door to be her chaperone for the day. The girl had not been informed that she was going to be discharged that day, so she was oblivious. It would be a nice surprise for her anyway. A birthday gift or sorts.

Besides, if it was not a surprise, then it wouldn't have been as much fun.

The day started out fairly normal. Fiore did her usual morning routine and followed Inoichi to a nearby tea shop for breakfast. There, they meet with Shikaku, whom happily shared his table with them and traded stories. Fiore rather liked his stories about towns and cities outside of Konoha, plus he was quite the avid storyteller, even if the shadow user would never admit it in public. In turn, Shikaku and Inoichi laughed at Fiore's latest attempt at rice pudding. It had been a disaster until Eliza, the undercover ANBU, managed to salvage the situation and actually made some pretty good ice pops out of the whole fiasco.

They shared some good laughs and later parted ways once their meals were finished. It was only later, when Fiore started to realize that she was not in a part of town she was familiar with, did she start to get curious. Maybe they were just picking up some supplies for Inoichi's shop. Yeah, that was probably it. No need to get hopeful right?

"So, where are we going again?" She asked the blond man next to her, trying to mask her increasing hopes.

"To the Hokage Tower, to meet with the Hokage. Since you are now close to being fully healed, you should be ready to live on your own." Chuckled the man, as he broke out his surprise. "I bet you are glad to hear you will finally be moving out."

Fiore's mind completely shut down for about 10 full seconds. She drew a complete blank until her mind finally managed to wrap itself around what Inoichi had just told her. _She was going to be free_.

'_Oh hell yes!'_ She managed to contain herself on the outside, even thought she was very close to start jumping all over the place in happiness. She almost glomped the blond man there and then, but she knew that Inoichi would get in trouble if she did. So she limited herself to jumping a few times in place, and throwing her arms in the air once while mentally yelling _'Yaahhhoooo!'_ She then noticed that she was falling behind, so she quickly bounced a few steps in order to catch up with the man, with a grin on her face. "Finally! After all this time, I was beginning to believe that I was going to remain in there forever! I'll finally be able to move out of that tiny little room and stretch my legs out."

"I figured you would be happy." Smirked the man. "So congratulations are in order. We got a little something prepared just for the occasion. But you will have to wait until later. First we have to clear out some paperwork."

Fiore just smiled brightly. She was beyond happy. If anything she was ecstatic at the news. "I wonder what could it be?" she sing-songed. "Cake? Presents? That book on flower arrangements we saw the other day? Or –"

The rest of the walk to the tower was filled with soft chatter, Fiore trying to pry information out of Inoichi in regards to this surprise they had in store for later that day, and said man skillfully evading each and every one of the woman's attempts, all the while smiling good naturedly seeing that she didn't gave up until they reached the tower.

* * *

During the trip to the tower, Inoichi found himself reminiscing about everything he had happened during the last year and a quarter. It had been a long year, filled with ups and downs, but in the end it was worth it. The end result was walking right next to him, in the form of a young lady that was still trying to guess as to what was going to be her surprise present. She had indeed come a long way, from comatose and bedridden, to the happy, giddy, slightly hyper woman following him.

Inoichi found himself smirking at the young lady's antics. Fiore's face had just been priceless when he said where they were going. She went from completely dumbstruck to happy, brighter than the sun, in a few seconds. Maybe because he was reminded of his own daughter's infectious energy, and maybe because this would be the last day he would be seeing Fiore as her Psychologist. After working with her so long, his feelings were somewhat akin to what teachers probably saw when their students graduated. It was bittersweet, because he would get to see his patient take her first real steps towards her new life, but it was also like saying goodbye. He took the time as he guided her through the busy early morning streets towards the iconic tower at the heart of the village, to remember just how far Fiorelynn had come.

Despite her presumed background and history, there was nearly nothing that could tie Fiore to Ouka, save for a few facial features. After much therapy she had turned into quite the beauty. Her skin had regained a healthy tan color after spending days out in the sun, her reddish chestnut frizzy colored hair reached just passed her shoulders, and her amber eyes really brought out her natural red-gold highlights. She was somewhat plain in the face with no truly outstanding characteristic other than her bright eye color. Some might call her pretty, but not overly attractive. Unless of course, they saw the rest of her body. Now that she was not skin and bones anymore and stood within her proper weight range, she had filled up quite nicely. A large bust, a slim yet not overly defined tummy, large hips and good strong legs would have been the envy of many women. Had Eliza and, to a lesser degree, Inoichi's wife, not given her a crash course in how to dress in a feminine and dignified manner without bordering into slutsville or whoretown, she probably would have found herself being the center of attention among many men. Inoichi remembered having paid a handful of bribes to Ibiki to make sure Anko never heard or saw of Fiore. He never would have heard the end of it if Anko had been the one to teach Fiore how to dress _her_ style.

Thankfully, she had learned well how to dress in a modest manner. Today, her clothing consisted of a long brown skirt, and a loose fitting short sleeved green shirt with red, orange and light green flowers and flourishes. It was comfortable, practical and did not reveal much at all. Other than that, she wore a plain brown belt loosely around her waist, a pair of comfortable sandals, a dark green headband to keep her hair out of her face, and a backpack where she could carry her snacks, medicine and any other odds and ends.

Inoichi chuckled at the memory of the first time he had brought Fiore over to work in the back gardens. His wife had been fired up and royally pissed off to say the least. She had thought that he had snuck back home, bringing some street slut for… umm… some morning romance, thinking that Ino was as school and that she was off with her friends. He managed to save his skin from a year long sentence of sleeping on the couch (and keeping his manhood intact) by very quickly explaining Fiore's amnesia and mental state, and why he had brought her. While skeptic at first, she had given him the benefit of the doubt and proceeded to poke and prod the younger woman for information. It didn't take her long to discover that he was telling the truth and she quickly warmed up to the girl, taking her shopping and tutoring her on all feminine topics. Despite the scare, Inoichi still had to take his wife out for romantic dinners for the rest of the week, even after assuring his wife that he had no romantic interest in Fiore what-so-ever.

Pushing that particular memory aside, Inoichi would also say that he was proud of how much Fiore had grown and matured mentally. She still had a childish side, with a weak spot for all things cute, warm and fuzzy, but she had become very responsible in her own way. She had a prideful streak in her, and fiercely independent when possible. Yet she also knew when to admit defeat, and ask others for help when she really needed. When approaching new things or new people, she was generally curious but also very cautious. She was polite when talking to strangers, and overall had a friendly disposition towards others. Interestingly enough, she would take just about everything she learned or heard with a grain of salt, never fully trusting strangers. He had a bit of a sneaky feeling as to how that distrust developed, himself having taken part in that most likely.

That, or she had somehow picked up a healthy dose of shinobi paranoia after being with Jounin ninjas almost 24/7 for over six months.

Either way, he had let that slide, opting to instead earn her trust back and letting her keep her secrets. Everyone was entitled to having a few secrets.

Well, as long as no one was hurt or harmed due to those secrets at least. And so far, Fiore's newfound light paranoia hadn't affected her recovery rate or her willingness to cooperate. So all was good, for now at least.

In other matters, he had noticed that Fiore seemed to do better in groups of few people. Both Eliza and his wife confirmed this, saying that Fiore did not do to well when she was taken shopping during the early morning rush hours. Large crowds and lots of noise easily grated on her patience and placed her in a bad mood. In short, it all pointed towards Fiore being an introverted person. She did have a slight tendency to think out loud, but so far she had not gotten into trouble because of it yet.

Still, all things considered, Fiore had grown on him, up to the point he considered her like another daughter or a baby sister. He certainly was not going to just sit on the side and let some uncouth moron try to hit on Fiorelynn. Interestingly enough, Shikaku had been the one that had pointed out his newfound overprotective tendencies. Initially the shadow user had mocking him a bit for it, but he also later praised him for it, saying that it was good practice for whenever he would need to scare off little boys that went chasing after Ino.

Besides, he had also caught Shikaku using a few of his own signature jutsus (discreetly of course) to manhandle some unsavory types that had been trying to flirt with Fiore or that had made some very inappropriate remarks.

With a smile on his face, Inoichi placed aside his memories to focus one again on the here and now, focusing his attention back on where he was going and to the person right next to him.

Alongside him, Fiore was just taking in the sights and sounds, once she finally gave up on trying finding out what was going to be her surprise present. He knew that this was the first time she had seen this part of the town so he let her look around as she pleased. Once in a while she would ask about a building or what did some things do. He happily answered all her questions as they kept moving on. Soon enough, the Hokage tower came into view, just under the shadow of the Hokage Mountain (which was graffiti free today).

"Wow." Fiore said as she stopped in the middle of the road to take in the sight.

She had never before seen the monument clearly in full. Just glimpses of it that were obscured by the various buildings and roof tops. But to see the whole monument in its daytime splendor, with the iconic Hokage Tower at its base was truly a sight to see. After gawking at the sight a bit, she realized that her guide had not stopped, so she quickly ran up to him to catch.

"That place must be important. Is that were we are going?"

"To the tower? Yes. The Hokage works there. That's his office. The monument behind the tower is depicted with the faces of all our past and present Hokages." He explained as they neared the building, briefly explaining some of the most impressive and known facts of each Hokage. The secretary at the entrance waved both of them through as she had known in advance that they would come.

After some careful weaving around the crowds, in particular a group of kids that had in their arms a feral brown cat with a little red bow on one ear, they soon navigated their way to the uppermost floor, where the Hokage's Office resided.

There was a brief flash of fear in Fiore's eyes as she stood in front of the foreboding double doors, flanked by a Chuunin guard to each side. Her past fears and depression flared in her mind, fearing that maybe she had done something wrong or if she had gotten her hopes up for nothing, and that she was not going to be released just yet. Without knowing, she bit the inside of her lower lip, as the anxiety started to buildup. However, a strong hand on her shoulders brought her out of her internal debates.

"You'll do fine." Inoichi reassured her with a soft smile. "You worked very hard all these months. This is your reward. You are ready for this."

Fiore calmed down and smiled back. It was almost freakily scary how easily the mind reader could figure out what she was thinking without doing any jutsus, but he also knew just what she needed to hear.

Taking a deep breath, Fiorelynn steeled her nerves. '_Yes, you are ready.' _ She thought with a grin on her face and a newfound determination in her eyes.

And right behind her, Inoichi nodded in approval. He then extended an arm to knock on the grand double doors before him.

* * *

In another part of the city, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure was, unsurprisingly, deferring from facing head on the most fearsome and terrifying enemy any kage could ever face. The dreaded paperwork.

Had it been any other day, Hiruzen would have allowed himself to get distracted by a great number of things. It ranged from dropping a surprise visit to the academy to see the children practicing or studying, sneaking out of the office for some tea and cookies, playing a round or two of shogi with other village elders (shinobi or not), taking long walks through the city, or his personal favorite, pulling out a copy of Icha Icha (autographed by Jiraiya himself no less) and catching up on Shiore's daredevil romantic adventures. But today was different, even if paperwork was still being pushed to the back burner as per norm.

Hiruzen had actually arrived much earlier than normal to his office, but he took every precaution to enter his office while not being detected by his office chuunin assistants and secretary. The only people that knew of the legendary professor's early arrival were his personal entourage of ANBU guards, and they knew better than to blab on their leader's current location. The reason behind the stealthy entrance was because Hiruzen needed to find a few documents and have them ready by the time Inoichi and Fiore arrived later in the day. He had after all, promised Fiorelynn all those months ago that when she had recovered sufficiently from her rehabilitation, that he would offer her options on housing and job hunting.

Had Fiore's existence not been kept a closely guarded secret from the whole village, the God of Shinobi wouldn't have required the extra level of stealth and secrecy. He probably could have looked for the housing and job opening documents during regular office hours, but even he did not dare getting seen with those files for no apparent reason by his secretary or assistants. Much less by his 'advisors'. Given that, the early hours of the morning, prior to his expected arrival time, was the perfect opportunity to search through the papers in peace.

Maybe there was a bit of a personal challenge into that decision. Besides, what kind self-respecting Kage would he be if he could not sneak by some of the best of the best his own village had to offer? Now he knew what Naruto just loved pulling pranks on the ANBU. It was just too much fun being able to get away with it without getting caught. Not to mention, who in their right mind would accuse their Hokage of drawing cat doodles on ANBU's capes, while they were on duty and were wearing them, with neon highlighters?

Hiruzen prided himself in still having his ninja skills up to snuff. Oh yes.

Personal challenges aside, the Sarutobi patriarch managed to successfully accomplish his mission undetected. Once he had separated the proper files he left the thin folders in a secret compartment in his desk, right under his Icha Icha books, and headed back to this residence. He still had just over two hours to grab some breakfast and casually walk to his office in broad daylight as if it really was the first time he arrived there that day.

No one was any wiser to the Hokage's activities.

His personal guard however, did get a good kick out of it, letting out a few silent chuckles.

Several hours later, Hiruzen was once again sitting in his chair, working through the piles and piles of never-ending paperwork. When he felt a soft chakra flare outside his double doors, accompanied by knocking on the solid wood, Hiruzen offered a quick prayer to Kami up above for the respite. He knew who was outside by the chakra flare; the nocks were just out of politeness and respect.

Quietly, he yawned into his hand, and then rolled his shoulders to get some feeling back into his stiff limbs. In hindsight, he really shouldn't have hunched over the desk to read the papers, yet for some reason someone kept making their writing smaller and smaller! At that pace, he would need to acquire a microscope just to read regular papers. Never mind the hidden fine prints! Still, he would deal with the perpetrator later. First things first, he had to clear his desk and put all those dam near useless sheets of paper somewhere else. Not having a whole lot of time, he opted instead to just shove the stacks onto another nearby table. Then he pulled out the two ledgers he had prepared earlier that morning.

"Come in." Hiruzen beckoned the two outside as he closed his drawers.

With the Hokage's permission, Inoichi pushed the doors open and gestured for Fiore to step inside, closing the door behind both of them.

Once inside, Fiore got a good look at the office. The room itself was spacious and looked comfortable. The center piece was the aged desk that was for once paperwork free and the large comfortably looking swivel chair behind said desk. Two padded chairs were placed before the desk for the guests. A few pictures adorned the walls, pictures of the past Hokages and other shinobi that had grown to make a legend of their own. Bookcases filled with books, tomes and scrolls covered one wall, while another part of the wall held a beautiful ink painting that held a poem written on one side. There were a few other things, such as an extra work table, spare foldable chairs, and a few other odds and ends that did give the room a more personal touch. Lastly, the large sliding windows in the back gave a beautiful view of the center of the village.

"Good to see you Inoichi. I was wondering when you would come. And hello to you as well, Fiore." Greeted warmly the legendary Professor. "Come, take a seat please."

"Good morning Hokage-sama" said Fiore, polite as she had been instructed, though there was a twinkle in her eyes of barely restrained energy. There was no doubt that she was excited.

"Mornin'." Inoichi replied as he walked up to the desk along with Fiore, each one taking a seat.

"I'm glad to see both of you here today." Hiruzen began talking. "Although I guess Fiore here has an idea about why I had you bringer her here, Inoichi." He chuckled, while the other two smiled, or in Fiore's case, outright beamed in anticipation. "Well then Fiore, let's make this official. Congratulations on having finished your rehabilitation." He finished with a smile.

Fiore was through the roof. She literally jumped off her seat and pulled the nearest person, being Inoichi, into a fierce hug. The blond man could have easily dodged her, but she let her have this little moment of happiness.

"Grats kiddo. You finally made it." He said as he returned the hug. "I guess you're a big girl now, huh."

"Dam right I am!" She exclaimed after letting go of Inoichi. Both of the men (not hidden) laughed good naturally at Fiore's little show of bravery. Those that were hidden, cracked a few smiles behind their masks.

"Indeed you are. You have most certainly proven that. Hatori and Eliza have given me their final reports on your progress, and along with Inoichi and myself, we have reached to the conclusion that you more than surpassed out previous expectations on your recovery. You truly surprised us all." The Hogake said after their laugher died down some. "Hatori did mention that you are still taking medicine. So just make sure you don't forget to take it and fill out your prescription until he says so." He added.

Fiore nodded. "Yes, I know. It's still annoying that I still have to take medicine after all this time, but at least it's no were near the crazy amounts I had to take at the start." He complained half-heartedly as she took her seat once again.

Hiruzen smiled at the woman's response. She really did remind him quite a bit of Naruto, but mostly just on their stubbornness and determination.

"All in good time my dear. For now, it is still best that you continue taking your medication until Hatori clears you. But let's move on for now.

"As promised, I've selected a few places where you could live, and I also have here a list of some of the current job openings that you may like." He then grabbed the files he had separated earlier and gave one folder each to Fiore and to Inoichi. "Look them over, and feel free to ask questions. We can help you go over them so that we can find the best option for you."

Between the three of them it took about two hours to go through both folders. Fiore's lack of overall working knowledge proved to be quite the handicap when trying to find her a well-paying decent job. In the end, they had to settle on something that required not much skill at all so that she could work herself up and hopefully pick up some much needed experience on the way.

Sadly, the remaining job openings left much to be desired. But beggars couldn't be choosers, so Fiore decided on two part time jobs. Oddly enough, they were almost the same, but just differed in the location. One was cleaning duty at the hospital while the other was at the ninja academy. The two were close enough to each other, plus they pay was a little better than some of the other offers. The opportunity to pick up some offhanded medical knowledge was a nice plus too.

Browsing through the housing listings was somewhat less problematic. The main difficulty there was trying to figure out what places were within Fiore's price range that were hopefully not too run down or in bad neighborhoods.

In the end, they all agreed that they would have to see the apartments in person to actually see the condition that they were in. Inoichi volunteered to accompany her for the journey, offering valuable input and preventing any dubious dealings.

And speaking of dubious dealings, while Fiore had been busy looking over both ledgers, Hiruzen and Inoichi had been locked in a silent debate through subtle ANBU hand signs. Mostly it revolved around Inoichi pointing out which of the listed apartments were in bad areas and which jobs were just a cover story for underground dealings. The blond man had in fact removed several pages from both folders that he did not approve of without Fiore noticing.

After all, he did not break his back turning Fiore into a proper lady just so that her first real job ended up in a brothel. Oh Hell no!

To his relief, the Professor saw his blunder and approved of Inoichi's intervention. He also signaled some of his hidden ANBU to go investigate said places. If there was something fishy going on, he would see to it that it was stopped before it spread. The last thing he needed was for greedy and sinful civilians to gain even more power; he already had enough dealing with their half-baked ideas and proposals that only benefited themselves and lined their pockets.

Once Fiore had picked out a few apartments, she and Inoichi left to go window shopping. It took better part of the afternoon but it needed to be done, since the listing on paper rarely revealed the true story.

By the end of their hunt, Fiore had decided on a quaint little apartment that was in an older part of town, mostly inhabited by seniors and a few others that were still single. The building itself was three stories high, divided into eight apartments. The apartment she picked was one of the smaller ones. It had 1 bedroom, 1 kitchen/dining room, 1 small living room and a full bathroom. It was in decent shape, with all the basic appliances installed and working, and most importantly, it was within her budget. There was also a small balcony that gave a bit of a view or the once lively Uchiha clan grounds. It was now little more than a ghost town with one single living occupant, but gardens and forest line brought at least a nice sight away from the dull colors of the city.

By the time the sun was setting and the first starts were slowly appearing in the sky, Fiore had finished and filled out all the papers needed and had already taken her few personal belonging and moved into her new home. She didn't a whole lot of things to move, but still it was nice knowing that she would be able to furnish and decorate the place as she pleased.

"Ready for your surprise?" Inoichi asked Fiore once everything had been put into place.

In all the hub-bub of the day, Fiore had completely forgotten about her surprise present. She sheepishly grinned while rubbing the back of her head, but then perked up fairly quickly. "Sure!"

"You forgot, did you?" he chucked briefly after seeing Fiore's expression. "No biggie. I've been carrying it around with me this whole time. Here." He said as he pulled out a scroll from within one of his flak jacket's compartments and handed it over.

"Huh? A scroll?" Fiore curiously took the offered scroll and unrolled it. She hadn't been expecting to receive a little piece of paper, but maybe it said something of importance.

Once unrolled, she found what looked to be a letter addressed to her.

_Fiorelynn._

_After extensive research, the remaining culprits behind the fires in the small village of Gozoukaiya have been found and arrested. Among the criminals there was a woman matching the physical descriptions that we had previously believed to be you. The woman that was caught had a history of small time pickpocketing, petty thievery, and other criminal activity. She will be spending a lengthy time in prison for all the damage done._

_With this in hand, you are hereby cleared of all criminal suspicions and charges. You are now allowed to move about freely in the city of Konohagakure as your wish. I am also attaching to this scroll some of the documents you will need should you wish to acquire traveling permits to leave Konoha. You may ask at the Hokage office for the full list of needed documents._

_As for what happened to you, the most likely conclusion we could draw up is that you were simply traveling when you got caught in the crossfire. Gozoukaiya is mostly a farming community, but it also serves as a place to stop and rest since it is part of a frequently used trading route that eventually leads to the Fire Capital. Merchants, traders and traveling entertainers have often stopped there for the night before continuing on their way. _

_Unfortunately, we have not been able to track down any possible family members of yours. If you do have any remaining family, then they are most likely to hail from outside of the Land of Fire, or in a very remote location within Fire._

_Hopefully this message puts some of your fears to rest and answers some questions that you have had for a long time._

_Lastly, congratulations on your recovery. _

_-Ibiki Morino, Head of T. & I._

Inoichi waited in silence as Fiore read the scroll, giving her some space and she digested the info. He knew what the scroll said, since he and Ibiki had gone through the collected data before they decided to give Fiore the official report. He hoped that the news would be much welcomed and appreciated.

"It wasn't me…" She managed to croak between tears with a slight smile on her face, then quickly engulfed Inoichi in a strong bear hug. "It wasn't me. I'm innocent!" she chanted into his flak jacket.

Once the surprise of the moment passed, Inoichi smiled back at the woman, gently wrapping his own arms to comfort her. "That you are little flower. That you are. You should have never doubted yourself. I figured you would have wanted to learn about this so I brought it with me. Thought it would give you some peace of mind."

They stayed like that for a few minutes in near silence, Inoichi letting his pseudo elder daughter cry her heart out in relief and joy. He was actually happy for the young woman, glad to see her finally shed herself out of the fears that had been plaguing her for so long.

After a while, Fiore finally released Inoichi. "Thank you." She murmured after composing herself. Then she realized that she had virtually tackle hugged the man. Her face turned a slight shade of red from the embarrassment. "Um… sorry about that. Hehehe." She quickly apologized.

"Bah, don't worry about it." The blond dismissed Fiore's worries with a wave of a hand. He wasn't really mad about getting hugged; he had actually been expecting something along those lines. "But, I also got you a little something else. Me and the guys but a little something together for you. Merimi, my wife, also pitched in." he began explaining as he pulled out a second scroll from his vest, laying it over the counter and opening it up.

Fiore, meanwhile, wiped away any remaining tears from her face and looked on curiously. "Oh? But I thought the present was this report." She asked somewhat confused, pointing towards the release papers from Ibiki.

In reality, that report had been perhaps the best gift she could have wished for. There were simply no words to describe how good it had been to read those words. Relief had simply flooded her system, finally killing the last bits of doubt that had hovered over her since she had woken up. Fear and doubt had plagued her for so long that she had begun to believe that she would have to live out the rest of her life with the stigma of a passed criminal on her head. But now, it was gone, like dust in the wind. It was no more, and it was gone for good. She was free to write her own destiny, with her own hands this time, and she would be working on a blank stale instead of amending for past deeds.

So when Inoichi started going about a second gift, Fiore could not help but feel that she could not ask for more. The report was more than enough. "B-But that's too much! It's no really necessary–" she tried to stop the man but to no avail.

"Now, now. Don't be like that. Besides, we can't just let you lose in an empty house." the man grinned as he bit down on his thumb and dragged a thin clear line over the center of the second scroll.

A split second later, a small puff of smoke emanated from said scroll, obscuring the view. When the smoke finally cleared out, Fiore just stood speechless.

What was once a bare counter was now covered in various boxes of ranging sizes. There was a small set of pots and pans, another of dinnerware, silverware, an assortment of cooking utensils, various glasses, mugs and cups… it was literally a bit of everything to fill up and stock a kitchen. There was also a pair of sets of bed sheets and a comforter in another box, along with a pair of towels for the bathroom.

Just about everything she had planned on getting as soon as she could to furnish the apartment. And in the colors she liked to boot.

"By the gods…" she gapped.

"We figured that the place would be bare save for some of the appliances, so we got you all this to get you started. And no, before you even try, I'm not taking this back. It's yours now." The man crossed his arms with a smile on his face. "Besides, my wife would kill me if she saw you living in a bare apartment."

Both laughed at that comment, because they knew it was true. Merimi was a strong willed woman, and she could not stand to see someone living in dismissal conditions if it was through no fault of their own. When it came to a woman's dignity, or how properly stocked her kitchen was, there was no stopping that woman until she had her way. Yes, this had Merimi written all over it, so there was no refusing this gift.

"I… I'm at a loss for words. I… I would never have expected this much… This is just… I mean… wow…" Fiore said as she went about getting a better view of all the items.

Inoichi grinned as he watched Fiore cautiously inspect everything as if were delicate glass. "Then don't trouble yourself with words and instead just accept this gift and make good use if it."

The auburn haired woman chuckled in defeat. "I will. And thank you. All of you. For all that you have done for me." She said after turning around to face the man that had helped through thick and thin. A genuine smile of gratitude graced her face.

"Anytime." Inoichi's own smile softened. "I guess I'll let you unpack and I'll head home." He made a turn to leave but stopped just before his hand reached the door's handle. "Oh one more thing." He turned back to see Fiore once more. "And feel free to drop by for a visit. I'm sure Merimi and Ino would just love to hear what you have been up to."

"I'll be sure to visit before the week is over." Fiore promised. "It's the least I can do after everyone put so much effort into all this."

And with that, they exchanged their farewells. Inoichi leaving to go towards his home, and Fiore was left to do another round of unpacking.

It was well past midnight by the time Fiore was finally done. It had taken her a longer than expected, but she had taken the time to write down a shopping list for anything and everything that she was still missing. She wasn't missing a whole lot, but the fridge needed to be stocked and cleaning supplies were nowhere to be found. Shopping was on her list of things to do after work tomorrow.

But first bedtime. No use getting up late and screwing up on the first day of her new job.

Tomorrow would be the beginning of her new life.

* * *

Work at the hospital the next day wasn't overly glamorous nor exiting. Fiore had arrived before 7am with a few minutes to spare at the hospital entrance. There wasn't a whole lot of movement in the morning, but there were a couple of young shinobi getting looked over after coming back from a mission with minor wounds. Pearly white walls stood mostly bare and undecorated, along with a matching plain ceiling and speckled gray with white tile floors. Perhaps the most noticeable feature was the stench of strong cleaning products and antiseptics. The front desk and the nearby waiting room held a little bit of color, in the form of a pair of large scenic paintings and a couple of large fake potted plants.

At the front desk, she introduced herself to the nurse in turn. The older woman there called over a colleague of hers to show her what she would be doing while working at the hospital. The newly arrived nurse got her a uniform and began to show her around. The place was rather big, being 4 stories high and with two more underground levels for storage and additional machinery. After the quick tour, Fiore followed the nurse for the rest of the morning changing bedspreads, sheets & pillow covers, washing the laundry, sweeping and mopping, and clean a few bathrooms.

The hours went surprisingly quickly, and before she knew it, it was already noon. The end of her shift.

After lunch and putting away her uniform, she packed her things and left for her second job. Janitorial duties at the Academy.

The academy was a few minutes' walk from the Hospital, and surprisingly close to the Hokage tower. At least Fiore wouldn't have trouble finding the place. The building itself was quite distinguishable, not to mention all the noise and chatter of children was also a dead giveaway. She smiled at the sight of all the little ones running around and bragging about their latest exploits. Quite a few of those stories were obviously tall tales, but she found them humorous all the same. _'Let them have their fun, they are still kids after all.'_

Patiently, she waited for most of the children to leave the school, taking a seat on nearby bench across the street that was under a shady tree. He had some time at her hands, since the large clock at the entrance said it was 1:45pm and she had been instructed the day before to arrive by 2:15pm. While she waited she got a few odd looks, but for the most part no one talked to her, save for a quick greeting before moving on. She didn't mind it at all; she didn't know anyone there either so it was no true surprise. She preferred her little corner of solitude anyway.

When the clock stuck two o'clock, Fiore got up and made her way into the Academy. Most of the children had already left by then, with only a handful of stragglers remained playing in the playground still waiting to get picked up.

Since she did not know her way around the school, Fiore opted to ask one of the teachers for directions. To her slight irritation, the Chuunin teacher called her if she was looking for a child of hers. It took just about every single drop of willpower within her to calmly explain that she was there for the job opening, and not to pick up a child. She had been very close to chewing out the teacher, but then again, she was technically old enough to have a child… or two. She dearly hoped that she did not have any children as of yet. She certainly had no intentions of having babies any time soon.

The Chuunin quickly saw his blunder and quickly apologized for assuming wrongly. Afterwards he guided Fiore towards the main administration office to get her set up. Once introductions and pleasantries were exchanged, Fiore was given a quick tour of the Academy and shown were all the cleaning supplies were stored. She also got a written list of what she was expected to do in each room. For the most part, it could be summed up to sweeping the floors, mopping, cleaning the windows, wiping down the desks and washing the blackboards.

Cleaning at the academy was a lot less hectic than at the hospital. For one, since classes were over for the day, there were a lot less people moving about. And those that she did encounter were not going to and fro in a complete frenzy. The academy was nearly deserted for the most part actually. The people she had come across with were a pair of teachers that were grading papers and another teacher that was cleaning the small training field adjacent to the academy building that was littered with blunt kunai and shuriken. Granted, had it been early in the morning it would have been a completely different story, but now in the afternoon the school was bathed in a calm and almost lazy aura.

Smiling at the more relaxed atmosphere, she went about filling out her list of chores at her own pace. Quite the difference compared to the near madness that went down in the hospital, especially in the emergency and intensive care units. Over there she had been pressed to keep up with the nurse that was showing her (more like dragging her) around, but there at the academy she was free to set her own little schedule. As long as she got things done, the school officials didn't mind exactly how she did it.

After getting a good idea of the general layout of the building, Fiore set off to start cleaning. For the first few hours, things progressed rather smoothly for Fiore. As expected, some rooms were cleaner than others. One in particular had little bits and spots of cake and frosting littered all over. Someone had a birthday probably. _'At least someone is living it up.' _She thought to herself. That room and another where someone had spilled soda pop near the entryway gave her the hardest time out of the bunch. Dam sticky stuff did not want to get out of the floors!

It wasn't until later that day, when she was on the last stretch of rooms on the ground floor, did something completely unexpected happen.

She had just finished cleaning one of the rooms for the youngest of children and was about to walk into the next one. As she was opening the door, she saw a little blond haired boy with big blue eyes, staring right back at her. The boy was no older than ten years old, and was wearing blue shorts and a white shirt. He also held a cardboard box in his hands. Fiore couldn't see what was in the box but judging from how the little boy was having trouble with it, she guessed it was rather heavy for the little fella. But perhaps the oddest part of the boy was the three, single line, scar-like markings he had on each cheek on his face.

"What are you doing in here so late little fella? Shouldn't you be at home?" she asked, with one hand still on the doorknob, concerned for the little guy. School had ended over four hours ago, and surely no teacher was crazy enough to hold the kid in detention so late.

The blond boy just blinked at her, looking completely confused for some reason.

'_Poor kid, maybe he's keeping busy waiting for his parents to pick him up? No, it's too late for that. It would be down-right inhuman to keep him here so long. Chores for some reason? Still weird but maybe plausible.' _She thought to herself, seeing the lack of response coming from the little blond.

Taking pity on the boy, she decided that it would be better if she brought the kid to the school officials. Surely someone there would be able to contact the boy's parents so that he could go home.

"You okay there kid? Where are your pa— uh?" She pushed aside the door to be able to step into the room, but as soon as she pushed the door all the way, he heard an odd clicking sound.

"No wait! Don't—" Fiore heard the boy yell in panic, followed by a loud thud of several heavy objects hiding the floor.

However, the rest of the boy's warnings were cut off, as Fiorelynn found herself drenched in a large bucket full of sticky colored water. She barely had enough time to raise her arms to block the bucket from hitting her head, but that did not save her from getting completely soaked through.

Neither of the two moved, filling the room in complete silence for well over a full minute. Unknown to Fiore, who had her eyes closed when the bucket of questionable water fell on her, the room's other occupant, the little blond boy, had gone almost deathly pale.

Normally, for one 11 year old Naruto Ukumaki, seeing one of his pranks go off perfectly was a matter of pride in itself. But today, he had spent all of his detention time planning out this particular prank to get back at that crummy teacher that had once again sent him off to detention for some dumb reason he had made on the spot. Naruto liked his other teacher much more, Iruka-sensei, but his other guy just grated on his nerves till no end. He couldn't remember his name even. Just goes to show how little he cared about that teacher.

But going back to the prank, Naruto had painstakingly set up the relatively simple yet effective prank to piss off his non-favorite teacher. It was a classic really, take one bucket of water, add a packet or two of gelatin mix, a little corn starch to thicken the mixture up, and voila! A sticky and colorful mess on demand. Once the glop was properly mixed and stirred until it had just the right consistency, it was only a matter of properly rigging the door, so that the trap was not visible from the outside and for it to go off right.

He had not however, thought of the possibility of someone else, other than the mean teacher, to walk in on him and set off the trap.

The new cleaning lady, or he supposed she was since he had never seen her before, had found him just as he was packing away the rest of this 'pranking toolbox'. Said lady look at him with eyes different from those of most of the village. There was no hate, no glares, no venom nor any kind of evil intentions. In fact, she looked confused and concerned for him, which was something almost completely foreign to him. Her voice was also devoid of that sickly sweet tune he had seen some of the villagers use when trying to lure him into traps or do him harm. These genuine feelings of concern had been what had caused him to freeze on the spot, completely confused. For the most part, Naruto usually went that extra mile to make sure that those few people that were nice to him did not get caught in his pranks (save for Iruka-sensei and old man Sarutobi once in a while.) It was only when she pushed the door aside and tripped the trap that he snapped out of his stupor.

'_Oh crud, oh crud, oh crud— I just pranked someone that was nice to me.'_ He thought as he saw the lady standing under the doorframe completely covered in blue-green sticky water.

Fiore on the other hand, braved opening her eyes to see the damage. She could certainly feel it, as her waterlogged clothes stuck themselves to her skin and a few trickles of water ran down her arms and legs. Not overly surprising, the damage was rather extensive.

"Wh-what is t-this?" she asked mostly to herself, feeling as how she felt slimy all over with every single movement she made.

Across the room, the little boy burst into hysterics, dropping the box he had in his arms without a second glance. "Ohmygosh Ohmygosh I'm sorry! I didn't been too! Ok maybe I did, but it was to catch that mean teacher, not someone else! I didn't know there was anyone else in here so late a-and— I'M SORRRYYYYYY!" Yelled out the blond in panic, not that Fiore could make heads or tails of it after the first 30 seconds. Her mind had simply shut down, only registering the sticky gooey mess that as dripping down her body.

How the heck could the boy say all that in a single breath? Only Kami knew.

Regardless of the boy's babbling—erm… long winded apologies, Fiore was trying to wrap her mind around just what exactly she had walked into to. Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard someone running down the hallway followed by a loud yell.

"NAAAAAAARUUUUUUUTOOOOOOOOO!"

Five seconds later, a man appeared behind Fiore. The man had chocolate brown hair tied up in a very neat pony tail, mahogany eyes that were currently lit aflame with indignation, and a peculiar scar that ran across his face just over the bridge of his nose. He was wearing the usual blue ninja uniform with the green Flak jacket identifying him a Chuunin or higher in rank.

"Uh oh… I-Iruka-sensei…" the little blond went pale at the sight of his academy teacher.

The teacher needed no more than a second to realize what had happened. Besides, Naruto's face had guilty written all over it.

"YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE YOUNG MAN!" shouted the scarred man, further scaring the little troublemaker.

* * *

**A/N: And Naruto makes his grand (or not so grand) appearance. But no worries, Fiore won't stay mad at the pipsqueak for too long. **

**Just in case, Inoichi sees Fiorelynn as a daughter, hence why he got somewhat overprotective about her. Likewise, his wife (I'm calling her Merimi here since she doesn't appear to have an official name in the naruto wiki) also took Fiore under her wing and set her straight. **

**Reviews and constructive criticism is very much welcomed!**


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